Recently, “High-strength, large-size, easy-to-weld offshore engineering steel and application project”, a key research project of the State’s “13th Five-year Plan” was officially approved. The project was led by Northeastern University and participated by 20 domestic units including Wuyang Steel, Baosteel, Shandong Steel, Luoyang Ship Material Research Institute, Metal Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Prof. Wang Zhao-dong, Director of RAL of Northeastern University, was in charge of the project. As one of the MOST “Key Special Projects of Basic Material Technology Improvement and Industrialization” that were launched in the first batch, the project’s implementation would make the self-suffiency ability of China’s high-end offshore platform steel risen above 70% , extend maximum life span more than 50%, and provide powerful material basis for China’s Strategy of Building an Ocean Power.
The sea is the commanding height of the world political, economic and military competition in the twenty-first Century. Marine scientific research and marine technology development which aim at maximizing the use of the ocean have risen to the highest level of strategic planning and decision-making in various countries. China is a large maritime country, but far from being a maritime power. The iron and steel materials used in offshore engineering are the material premise for expanding marine space and developing marine resources. It is also the material guarantee for enhancing the marine defense strength and safeguarding the marine rights and interests. Marine construction equipment is in the harsh environment of wind, wave, flow and corrosion for a long time. The service period is long, and the steel must have high strength and toughness, fatigue resistance, anti-lamellar tear, high corrosion resistance and so on.
At present, key parts of special steel in China's marine construction, such as high level thick steel plate, thick wall seamless tube, large size steel, still need to be imported. Our welding efficiency and corrosion resistance of offshore platform thick plate are still far behind of foreign advanced level. Our self-sufficiency capability in high-end steel materials is still poor. All these factors have constrained the overall design and construction level of China's large-scale marine engineering equipment.
In view of the bottleneck problem of marine engineering steel production in China, the project would focus on the following aspects:1) the construction of a number of world-class marine engineering steel scientific and research base, industry demonstration base, and talent training base, to promote China’s overall level in R&D and application of offshore engineering steel to international advanced level, and push China to take the lead in yield strength, thickness, and weld heat input; 2) establishing three theoretical systems for evaluating the toughening and texture control, corrosion and protection, and service performance of offshore engineering steel; 3) conquering a number of key generic technologies and relevant equipment, and realizing their industrialized application, including large section system ingoting / billeting, high permeability rolling, extra-thick steel plate high-strength uniform quenching, integrated texture property modulation, thick plate large heat input welding and large size profiled plate preparation; 4) developing high-toughness extra-thick plate, large wall thickness seamless tube, large size structural steel, high-grade anchor chain steel, high anti-corrosion sintered metal product and other key offshore engineering steel products or prototype products, with demonstration application above 1000 tons, forming a complete industrial chain, and supporting the formation of China's marine steel standards.
It is reported that the leading party Northeastern University has distinctive features in high quality and low cost of melting and rolling technology, development and industrialization of major metallurgical equipment research; and enjoys solid strength in high performance steel development, texture performance control and other fields, with a number of independently developed complete sets of equipment technologies and high grade steel having been applied in more than half of domestic large steel enterprises. In recent years, Northeastern University has made many outstanding achievements in marine engineering steel material development, and has undertaken two key 863 projects in succession--“Research and Production Technology Development of Offshore Platform High Manganese High Strength and Toughness Steel Plate and Titanium/Steel Composite Plate” and “Key Technologies and Principles of Offshore Oil Platform High Strength, Thick Gauge Plate Production”--and many other major enterprise-level horizontal projects.
Besides Northeastern University, the other 20 participating units include five major offshore steel product manufacturing enterprises, five major research and development units of offshore engineering steel, welding technology and welding materials such as University of Science and Technology Beijing and Harbin Institute of Technology, five most representative offshore engineering steel evaluation, corrosion and protection research units such as CSIC725, IOCAS and Ningbo Institute of Materials, and five China’s major marine equipment design, construction and certification units. The project team has a complete chain of design, research and development capability, and collaborative innovation ability.