Coatings for protection of boat landings

against corrosion and wear

Astrid Bjrgum, Ole ystein Knudsen and Sbastien Equey,
SINTEF Materials and Chemistry and Arya P. Bastiko, NTNU
Introduction
In addition to corrosion protection boat landings need protection
against impact and scour due to impact from the service boat. Coating
maintenance offshore is expensive. Boat landings located in tidal and
splash zones are particularly difficult to maintain due to constant
wetting by seawater. Offshore oil & gas industry has reported lifetimes
above 20 years for certain coating systems also in the splash zone.
Offshore wind farm owners, however, have seen that protective coating
systems on boat landings are damaged after few years in service.
To ensure secure access to the wind turbines for the O&M people, high
friction coating systems are preferred for the boat landing.

Fender tubes

The objective of this study has been to study abrasion and mechanical
properties of different corrosion protective coating systems for boat
landings.

www.seawork.com

Rubber
fender

Experimental work
Coating systems used to protect boat landings and/or known to have
long lifetimes in the splash zone of offshore oil & gas installations were
applied on steel samples by the coating suppliers:
Coat 2
Generic type
Epoxy
Polysiloxane topcoat
Modified epoxy
Surface tolerant
Epoxy1a
Epoxy Alu Primer
epoxy mastic
Surface tolerant
Surface tolerant
Epoxy1b
epoxy mastic
epoxy mastic
Glasflake reinforced Glasflake reinforced
Epoxy2
epoxy
epoxy
HDG
Hot dip galvanized
HDG_powder Hot dip galvanized Powder coating
Glasflake reinforced Glasflake reinforced
Reinforced
polyester
polyester

DFT
Coat 3
[m]
Generic type
Polyurethane topcoat 310
350
Polysiloxane topcoat 280
The same topcoat,
450
Curing times 3 years
(Epoxy1a) and
500
3 months (Epoxy1b)

Abrasion testing of the coating systems showed generally

Decreasing friction coefficients with increasing testing time

Faster degradation of Rubber than the other coating systems
Weight loss despite some rubber settled on the coating surfaces
educed surface roughness

500
200
300
1500

Vulcanised neoprene rubber applied on steel samples in approximately

4.5 mm thickness were used to simulate the fenders on service boats.
Abrasion testing was done to determine the ability of the boat landing
coatings to resist wear due to contact with the rubber fender on the
boats. Testing was performed by sliding the rubber sample against the
coated surface, applying a 200 N weight load at a frequency of 0.1 Hz
for 700 s in air and 1800 s in artificial seawater. The load used was
estimated from Herz' equations assuming that the service boat acts
with a propulsion force of 10,000 N against the boat landing.
(a)

Results

0,05

Weight loss
Air

Artificial seawater

0,04
0,03
0,02
0,01

Surface roughness, Ra

0,00

3,0

As received

2,5

Air

Artificial seawater

Roughness, Ra

Coat 1
Generic type
Zinc rich epoxy
Zinc rich epoxy
Zinc rich epoxy

500
mm
Boat

Weight loss [g]

Coating
system
PU
PSO1
PSO2

Ladder

Coating system 2,0

1,5
1,0
0,5
0,0

(b)

Coating system

Impact testing of the coating systems showed

Cracking of the PU, PSO and HDG-powder coatings
No cracking of Epoxy1a, Epoxy1b, Epoxy2 and Reinforced coatings

Conclusions
Abrasion testing in (a) air and (b) artificial seawater

Mechanical properties were investigated by

Vickers hardness according to ISO 14705
Impact resistance according to ISO 6272
Adhesion according to ASTM D1002-10

Increased roughness and low weight loss in the abrasion test

indicate that the well cured Epoxy1a is suitable for boat landings
High friction coefficients but high weight loss may question use of
the Reinforced coating on boat landings
High surface roughness and low weight loss indicate that HDG may
be a compromise to organic coating systems for boat landings