CASE STUDY
MRCF - Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund
MESAT - Marine Energy Supporting Array Technologies
MESAT – Synthetic Fibre Rope Polymer Lined Fairleads
Client(s): Innovate UK, Carbon Trust and Scottish Government
Consortium: TTI, Nylacast, Bluewater, Bridon and AWS
Dates: 2013 - 2016
AIMS
Development of a lightweight, durable fibre rope top end tensioning, fairlead and liner system for marine renewable energy devices to enhance LCOE through CAPEX reduction and durability improvements of line on-boarding system
Approach
TTI conducted detailed design of rope, fairlead and liner;
Conducted bending fatigue testing to simulate motions of a device and the response of rope and liner to this;
Quantified wear on the rope and liner.
Qualification planning and delivery were key aspects of this project.
Key Outcomes and Impact
Special rope protective jacket system showed no signs of wear after load cycling (simulated 6 months up to 60% break load)
No wear observed on the polymer fairlead liner
Nylon lubricated fairlead liners developed which has been applied to a variety of renewable energy projects (e.g. Scottish Enterprise Tidal Energy Array Cabling Project)
Industry Relevance
Innovations such as these highlight the potential opportunities that are available to develop reliable, robust and lower cost mooring systems that are also optimised for marine operations.
The focus of the MESAT project was on tidal and wave energy convertors but this type of technology and development process is equally applicable to FWTs following further development and progress along the qualification pathway.
This again highlights TTI’s appetite and expertise for innovation to provide solutions for the sector.