The Eurecat technology centre is leading three European projects with a total budget of €8.2 million to drive new solutions for advanced high-strength steel components for designing lightweight vehicles in the automotive industry and larger, more resistant and cost-effective wind turbines for offshore wind energy.

Specifically, the H2FORM3G European project, coordinated by Eurecat and with a budget coming to almost €2.9 million, is exploring the effect of hydrogen on manufacturing third-generation advanced high-strength steel components for their use in the design of lighter vehicles.

Using high-strength steels can cut vehicle weight by 10 to 20 percent due to their improved mechanical properties, yet these steels are also more susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement which can lead to premature fracture of components made of these materials.

Hence the H2FORM3G consortium, made up of eleven partners from four European countries, will furnish the tools required to address the risk of crack generation during the forming of automotive components. To this end, the project will combine in-depth studies on the effect of hydrogen on the microstructure of steels with new advanced characterisation methodologies such as using synchrotron radiation and predictive modelling.

“The new characterisation methodologies and predictive models to be studied in the project will help to fast-track designing and optimising lighter steel automotive components,” says Sílvia Molas, the project’s coordinator and head of the Corrosion and Degradation Line in Eurecat’s Metallic and Ceramic Materials Unit. “Crash safety will also be improved through better knowledge of the behaviour of these materials by preventing cracks from emerging during forming.”

New characterisation and simulation methods for the automotive industry

Eurecat is also coordinating the European Steel4Fatigue project which explores new optimised solutions for dynamic vehicle components such as the chassis and wheels by introducing new high-strength steels and technologies to reduce the weight of trucks and cars.

Steel4Fatigue will furnish the industry with “new characterisation and simulation methods which will make it possible to develop and use new high-strength steels in structures subjected to cyclic loads,” notes Sergi Parareda, a researcher in Eurecat’s Metallic and Ceramic Materials Unit and the project’s coordinator. “Thus the project’s results will help to establish steel as a lightweight, cost-effective and sustainable solution for the future of mobility.”

The project has a €2.7 million budget and eleven partners in its consortium from Spain, Sweden, Italy, Romania and France which are leaders in research, technology and industry.

New solutions to make offshore wind energy generation more competitive

Finally, the DURALINK project, also led by Eurecat, is developing new solutions to extend the service life of welds and steel chains in new generation wind turbines, reducing their weight and making them more resistant to corrosion while cutting maintenance costs to make offshore renewable wind energy generation more competitive.

The project is to identify design opportunities for optimising floating offshore structures leading to reduced CapEx and OpEx for new offshore wind turbines. It will additionally innovate in areas such as protective coatings to minimise corrosion in structures, estimating the life of components and support structures, and new predictive models of mechanical degradation.

The DURALINK project’s purpose is to “address the structural and integrity assessment challenges of the large support structures and anchor chains which will improve floating platforms for future offshore wind generation since they are expected to significantly increase in scale with larger turbines to cut the cost of the energy produced,” points out Amadeu Concustell, the project’s coordinator and a researcher in the Corrosion and Degradation Line at Eurecat’s Metallic and Ceramic Materials Unit.

The project has a budget of more than €2.6 million and involves seven partners from four European countries. Its results will be transferred to the wind energy, steel and heavy industry sectors and also shared with standardisation bodies to foster the use of the new coatings and high-strength steels developed in the project in floating wind turbines.

The three initiatives, which will run until 2027, are funded by the European Union’s Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS).