Fatigue Failure Mechanics of Polymer-modified Concrete in the Marine Environment

支撑海上风力涡轮机的浮动基础设施广泛用钢建造，但研究表明，由于混凝土的制造成本更低，碳足迹更低，成本稳定性更好，因此将转向使用混凝土，这符合政府到2030年将英国含量提高到60%的目标。然而，对传统混凝土材料缺乏信心导致了严格的设计要求，以确保它们的水密性，导致厚度过大，阻碍了它们的可浮性。该项目的目标是开发用于轻型浮动平台的创新聚合物改性混凝土材料。与传统混凝土相比，聚合物改性混凝土具有养护速度快、抗冲击能力强、延性好、与钢筋粘结性能好等优点，使设计变得更薄，最终减少材料的使用。现有的研究已经证明了优越的静力结构性能，但还没有发表关于所有重要的疲劳破坏机制的研究。因此，需要对疲劳进行基础研究，以释放其在近海结构中的巨大潜力。该项目是一个多学科的项目，涉及材料特性、结构工程、化学工程和海洋工程。

Floating substructures that support offshore wind turbines have widely been constructed from steel, but research has suggested a shift towards use of concrete, due to its lower manufacturing costs, lower carbon footprint and better cost stability, which aligns with government target of achieving 60% UK content by 2030. However, lack of confidence in conventional concrete materials has led to exacting design requirements to ensure their water tightness, leading to excessive thickness that hinders their floatability. This project targets development of innovative polymer-modified concrete materials for lightweight floating platforms. Compared with conventional concrete, polymer-modified concrete has advantages of rapid curing, high impact resistance, high ductility and excellent bonding to reinforcement, which will enable thinner design and eventually less use of materials. Existing research has demonstrated the superior static structural behaviour, but no research has been published on the all-important fatigue failure mechanism. Fundamental research on fatigue is thus needed to unlock its significant potential for offshore structures. This project is a multi-disciplinary project, which involves materials characterisation, structural engineering, chemical engineering and marine engineering.