Production and properties of high-strength steel plates for offshore applications

Electrical power from offshore wind farms could make an important contribution to future energy and climate policies. Average wind forces at sea are high enough to promise an enormous potential in energy. The combination of most different demands represents a special challenge onto the steels used for offshore wind power plants. Further new fields of application in offshore technique can be exploited through the use of high-strength quenched and tempered structural steels with yield strengths up to 1100 MPa. This article deals with the production techniques and properties of these modem steels. Particular attention is given to the fatigue behaviour, the fracture toughness and the component-like behaviour. The data obtained were used for assessing the failure behaviour of components in terms of Y/T-ratio as well as modem safety concepts.