Recycled aerospace grade Ti-6Al-4V for structural applications in offshore renewable energy systems

EPSRC：Patrick Curran：EP/L016273/1英国和加拿大正式宣布气候紧急状态；清洁能源生产对应对气候变化至关重要。海上风能被证明是英国和加拿大生产绿色能源的一种可行方法。钛合金提供了比钢更持久的结构材料，但钛很贵。从航空航天废物中回收钛提供了一种经济高效和绿色的高性能材料来源。一种新的回收工艺，称为现场辅助烧结技术，可以很容易地回收钛。破碎的海浪和腐蚀性的环境相结合，破坏了近海的可再生能源结构。在这个项目中，我们通过在海洋环境中弯曲钛和钢，并使用数字图像相关等创新的非接触技术来测量裂纹扩展，来研究海洋环境对当前使用的钢和回收钛中裂纹扩展的影响。我们预计，在目前使用的钢中，裂纹扩展将比回收的钛更快。这将意味着钛制成的风力涡轮机寿命更长，产生更多绿色能源，这可能使其具有成本和能源效益。

EPSRC : Patrick Curran : EP/L016273/1The UK and Canada have officially declared a climate emergency; clean energy production is vital in combatting climate change. Offshore wind proves a viable method of green energy production for the UK and Canada. Titanium alloys offer longer lasting structural materials than steels, but titanium is expensive. Recycling titanium from aerospace waste offers a cost effective and green source of high-performance materials. A novel recycling process called field assisted sintering technology, can easily recycle titanium. The combination of crashing waves and corrosive environment, damages offshore renewable-energy structures. In this project we investigate the effects that the marine environment has on the growth of cracks in the currently used steels and recycled titanium by bending the titanium and steel within a marine environment and measuring crack growth using innovative non-contact techniques like digital image correlation. We expect that the crack growth will be faster in the currently used steel than recycled titanium. This would mean that a wind turbine made from titanium would have a longer lifetime and produce more green energy, which could make it cost and energy effective.