New guidance to adress the challenges of using concrete in maritime engineering

Concrete is extensively used as one of the main
construction materials in the maritime environment. At
least 15% (by value) of these works includes concrete
in various forms (sea walls and wave walls, concrete
armour units, caissons, etc.). Despite the long history
of capital investment in concrete maritime structures,
it is generally recognised that there was a gap in
structured guidance documents available with regard
to the use of concrete in maritime structures. There
remains a need to address unsolved challenges and
to provide engineers with up-to-date guidance.

KEY CHALLENGES FOR MARITIME CONCRETE

The key challenges associated to the use of concrete
in the maritime environment will be addressed are
being addressed, in particular:
- Designing for target performance of concrete
elements.
- Ensuring durable concrete material providing
appropriate performance during the service life of the
structure
- Providing strength to concrete, without using
conventional reinforcing steel
- Designing with mass concrete
- Mitigation of chloride-related corrosion of reinforcing
steel
- Delivering concrete resistant to attrition
- Extent to which non-reinforced concrete armour units
may be used to structurally respond to hydraulic loads
- Appropriate testing of concrete for the maritime
environment – in particular long term resistance to
attrition, resilience to impacts, resistance to chloride
attack, including laboratory testing and pilots
- Repairing of maritime concrete structures