Inspection, Maintenance and Repair of Maritime Structures Exposed to Damage and Material Degradation caused by a Salt Water Environment

This report is intended to consider the principles and causes of degradation and damage of materials and to cover state-of-art methods of inspection, maintenance and repair of port structures such as wharves, quays, jetties, and breakwaters, roads and buildings, but in some cases will also be relevant for port equipment and offshore structures. For this purpose, the Working Group has reviewed information on monitoring and treatment of common structural materials exposed to degradation and damage in port environments in the prevailing climates. These materials are timber, stone and masonry, concrete (unreinforced, reinforced and pre-stressed), and steel. As a general guide to the topics in question, Chapters 3 to 6 in this report discuss briefly the principle of chemical and other forms of material degradation in ports and the state-of-art of present inspection methods, maintenance procedures, and repair and rehabilitation methods – with selected, pertinent references to the Bibliography in Chapter 7, indicated by (serial number). In this context, it is recommended to read also the LCM report referred to in 1.1, or relevant parts of it. Consistently, each of the Chapters 3 to 6 and the Bibliography is divided in five Sections: 0 General 1 Timber 2 Stone and Masonry (and unreinforced concrete where relevant) 3 Concrete (reinforced) 4 Steel. Worldwide, much information concerning inspection and maintenance procedures is available in conference proceedings, technical magazine articles and special literature, and by judicious search in such sources of information it is possible to find and review descriptions of up-to-date methods and procedures.