1. Introduction:
Marine structures are those structure built on sea or near it, properly designed to withstand internal, external loads and aggressive environmental exposures both physical and chemical in order to prolong service-life.
Reinforced concrete structures as part of marine structure are exposed to severe physical and chemical exposure such as wave impact, sulphate and chloride exposure. In tropical climates, the combination of above deleterious effects may cause severe defects in concrete structure only in very few years.
In order to delay these detrimental effects, high durability, chloride and sulphate resistant concrete become a necessity in constructing marine structure. The use of silica fume such as Sikacrete PP1 combined with Sikament R4, Sikament 2000AT or Sika Viscocrete - a high water reducing admixture with retarding effect then become increasingly popular to produce a low permeability concrete and high sulphate resistant concrete. Sika Inertol Poxitar F, a tough coal tar epoxy coating, is essential to provide long-term protection to exposed and submerged steel pipe.
Grouting Bedding of Rail-Track
Sikadur 42 MP a three-component epoxy resin based grout, and/or SikaGrout 214-11, a non-shrink cementitious grout, have been widely used all over the world to grout rail-track bedding as the most important part of seaport.
Watertight Structure
Watertightness is the main requirement in constructing shipyard harbour, wharf and other marine structure. Sika provides a complete system ranging from external damp-proof coating (Sikaproof Membrane) to waterstops and joint sealant.