1 Marine Concrete Structures

1.1 General
Fig. 1-1 shows the still floating caissons for a roll on/roll off facility in Port
dAutonome Abidjan,
built by Selmer Skanska.
Figure 1-1. Floating caissons

The picture shows that having access to water and an innovative concrete
construction industry may
be a good, and possibly sufficient, starting point for building offshore structures.
Some situations may call for more complicated structures, and deep sheltered
waters may be a
requirement for the construction. Many of the offshore structures described in this
paper are from
Norway which has deep fjords, protected from the ocean.
Although many of the examples in this paper describe complex offshore concrete
structures, it is
important to recognize the value of simplicity. Ingenuity and standard means of
construction will bring
the best results.

1.2 Floating Concrete Sea-structures

The history of floating concrete sea structures goes back to the 19th century. In 1848
Lambot for the
first time used reinforced concrete to build a boat. During World War I, 14 concrete
ships were built
due to the steel shortage - including the 130 m long U.S.S. Selma. At that time
reinforced concrete had
already been used in shipbuilding (small ships) in the Scandinavian countries.
World War II concrete ships saw widespread wartime service in battle zones. Twentyfour of these
ships were large sea-going vessels and 80 were sea-going barges of large size. The
cargo capacities
ranged from 3.200 to 140.250 tons. Ref. 1, by Morgan, gives a good description of
the early
development of the concrete hull.
XIV National Conference on Structural Engineering, Acapulco 2004
Offshore Structures A new challenge

A number of notable pontoon bridges have been built of concrete. Ref. 2 gives an
overview of the long
traditions within this area. The first floating concrete bridge was built across Lake
Washington in
1940.
In the late 1950s, a number of pre-stressed concrete ocean-going barges were
constructed in the
Philippines (additionally 19 barges from 1964 to 1966), and concrete lighthouses
were constructed as
caissons in the 1960s. Concrete lighthouses are installed in the Irish Sea, in Eastern
Canada and in the
Gulf of Bothnia. Many pontoons, barges and other crafts have been successfully built
in the former
USSR, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Over the years, starting back in mid 1920s, some 70 temporary floating immersed
concrete tunnels
have been built in the following countries: USA, Canada, Argentina, Cuba, UK,
Denmark, Sweden,

Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan (Republic of China), Japan
and Australia.
During the 1970s concrete gained recognition as a well-suited material for
construction of offshore
platforms for the exploration of oil in the North Sea. Permanently floating offshore
vessels related to
the petroleum industry are now installed in the Java Sea, in the North Sea and
outside the coast of
Congo in West Africa.
From 1950 to 1982 it was registered that approximately 1.130 concrete hulls had
been built. Most of
them are small with overall length less than 50 m. Among the bigger ones, two
groups of sizes are
dominant, - approximately 250 hulls with length ranging from 58 to 67 m, and 40
hulls with a length
of 110 m.
Concrete hulls and barges - examples from practice
The ARCO barge (ref. 3)
The Ardjuna Sakti is a floating pre-stressed concrete LPG storage facility with overall
dimensions
140.5 x 41.5 x 17.2 m (length x beam x depth). Fully loaded, the vessel displaces
66.000 tons. The
ARCO barge was built and completely outfitted in Tacoma (Washington) and towed
16.000 km
(10.000 miles) across the Pacific Ocean to the Java Sea in 1976, where it is
permanently moored.
Concrete barge C-Boat 500.
The prototype barge, of 37 m length, 9 m beam and 3.1 m depth and of 500 dwt
loading capacity was
built in Japan in 1982.
Heidrun TLP (ref. 4)
Conocos Heidrun platform is the worlds first TLP with a concrete hull and the largest
permanently
floating concrete structure ever with a concrete volume of 67.000 m 3. The topside
related weight is
89.000 tons (net 65.000 t topside) and the displacement 285.000 tons. The platform
was installed on
location in the North Sea in 1995, at a water depth of 345 m.
Troll Oil Semi (ref. 5)
Norsk Hydros Troll Oil FPS platform is the worlds first concrete catenary anchored
floater. The
Troll Oil semi submersible hull has a concrete volume of 46.000 m 3 and supports a
topside weight of
32.500 tons. The displacement is 190.000 tons. The platform was installed on
location in the North
Sea in 1995, at a water depth of 335 m.
Nkossa barge (ref. 6 & 7)
Elf Congos Nkossa barge is the worlds largest pre-stressed concrete barge. The
floating production
vessel of which the dimensions are 220 x 46 x 16 m was built in Marseille, France,
and towed 4500
nautical miles to the west coast of Congo in West Africa where it was permanently
anchored in 170 m
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Offshore Structures A new challenge

water depth in 1996. The total displacement fully loaded is 107.000 tons, and the
concrete volume of
the barge is 27.000 m3. The hull supports six topside modules with a total weight of
33.000 tons.

1.3 Performance in the marine environment

Considering the wide use of concrete for marine applications there is surprisingly
little documentation
to be found on in-service performance. The apparent cause for this is that provided
satisfactory design
and execution, concrete is an optimal material for harbour, coastal and offshore
construction as it
combines durability, strength and economy. This fact is supported by studies of
floating concrete
docks back in the 1970s, showing dramatic savings, requiring less than 10% the
maintenance of
similar all-steel docks, ref. 1.
Other structures also utilize the water-tightness properties of concrete; storage
tanks, nuclear
containment structures and submarine tunnels.
Sare and Yee, ref. 8, report negligible repair and maintenance costs for the 19 prestressed concrete
barges constructed in the Philippines during 1964-66 for Lusteveco, with no need for
dry-docking.
After many years in service, average annual maintenance cost of the concrete
barges are found to be
about 1/3 compared to steel barges.
The fabrication cost of Yees barges showed a saving of 16 percent compared to that
of steel. In the
period 1974 to 1975, the total downtime per floating barge per year for maintenance
work was six
days for the concrete structures. The similar steel barges had an average downtime
of 24 days.
The Refiner I barge, checked by Bureau Veritas for issuing necessary certificates for
the towed
voyage, was designed for 4.2m wave height. It is worth noting that the vessel in fact
endured a storm
in the Bay of Biscay during which time the conditions were undoubtedly more severe
than those
contemplated in the calculations (the pontoon drifted in winds of force 10-11 and
angles of roll and
pitch of 14 and 10 respectively were observed). The unit behaved perfectly well
through this
unexpectedly severe environment. It seems to be general consensus that concrete
vessels and barges
have proved to have good seagoing qualities, to be safe and strong, and suffer much
less from
vibration than steel ships - to the crews satisfaction.
The 1970s and 1980s saw the spectacular development of offshore bottom fixed
concrete structures,
installed in up to 300 meters (1000 ft) of water depth in the midst of one of the
worlds stormiest
oceans, the North Sea. It is remarkable how well these structures have performed in
the hostile marine
environment, successfully withstanding the extreme loads from waves approaching
30 meters in

height as well as the dynamic cyclic forces. Experience has shown that the offshore
concrete structures
currently in use are virtually maintenance-free. It is generally recognized that the
first concrete
platforms in the North Sea were over-inspected and that the need for extensive
instrumentation of
platforms of common types should be reconsidered.
A comprehensive list of references to information pertaining to the performance of
North Sea concrete
structures is presented in ref. 9 and 19. No significant sign of material deterioration,
corrosion of
reinforcement or other material-related deficiencies have been observed. Falling
objects or ramming
ships mainly cause observed damages. Platforms designed for 20 years operation
have now passed the
end of their prescribed design life. Inspections and investigations confirm that their
lifetime in general
can be extended.
Various codes give well-established rules for assessing fire resistance. Two
hydrocarbon fires inside
North Sea concrete platform shafts in the late seventies are reported. The
consequence was a surface