Technical Assessment for the (fully made out of composites) Valencia’s new lighthouse

The Autoridad Portuaria de Valencia (APV) expanded by 2012 the capacity of its Port with three new docks in order to gain one million square meters to the sea. The new facilities, which are built at the north side of the Port, have not only increased its capacity but also have separated the existing lighthouse from the open sea.
A new lighthouse fully made out of composites was designed by Ignacio Pascual (APV) and manufactured by ACCIONA. AIMPLAS has contributed to this innovative building by giving technical assistance to the Project Management.

Composite materials are widely employed for several and very different applications, from aeronautics to civil engineering, as it is this case. Suitable mechanical properties, excellent environmental and UV resistance, low maintenance and the possibility to be manufactured and assembled in house and moved and installed in a few hours were the main reason for choosing carbon and glass fiber reinforced composites.

The high range of raw materials available in the market (resins, reinforcement, gel-coats, cores, etc…) and the heterogeneity of possibilities to be transformed into structures (pultrusion, infusion and RTM among others) increase the complexity of the design stage and requires a precise and complex quality control: every element made out of composites has been double checked by AIMPLAS, ensuring that they perform the specifications.

The new lighthouse made out of composites is already manufactured and installed. It can be seen at the Port of Valencia.