Material samples from the Oceanic project have been taken out of the sea after 8 months stay in marine environment

Despite the harsh weather (waves up to 14 m dragged the BIMEP buoy that had the testing frame attached to it), neither the frame, nor the panels with different materials and coating samples suffered any damage.

On April 9th one of the frames corresponding to the second test bench of the Oceanic project was taken out from the ocean after being submerged in the BIMEP (Biscay Marine Energy Platform) marine power testing area in Armintza since last August 2nd. The frame that has been extracted contains 8 panels of samples, 6 of them metallic and 2 of them plastic, treated with different innovative antifouling and anticorrosion (the metallic ones) solutions. These panels will be analysed to define the most effective treatments to face such phenomena.

The field test keeps going on by means of the second test frame that contains 6 metallic panels and a plastic one. This frame will remain submerged in the marine testing area.

The 8-panel frame that was extracted on April the 9th.

Without damage despite the harsh weather

Both testing frames have stayed submerged 15m deep, attached to two buoys anchored to the bottom of the sea with 50m long chains at the BIMEP facilities.

On March 24th, up to 14 meters high waves that were recorded in the area caused the break of one the anchor chains that were holding the buoys and, as a result, one of them was dragged by the tide. Despite this critical situation, none of the testing frames nor the sample panels, designed by the IK4-Azterlan Metallurgical Research Centre to ensure their integrity in extreme open sea conditions, have suffered any damage.

The consortium of the Oceanic project is focused on the development of innovative solutions against corrosion and fouling phenomena which can be extrapolated to other coastal applications. The project is funded through the support of SPRI, EVE, SWEA, CDTI and FCT, within the framework of the OCEANERA-NET (Ocean Energy European Research Network) program, under the reference OCEANERA/0005/2014.oceaneranet.eu.

Buoy dragged by the storm after the anchor chain broke down.