Use of New Materials for Caisson Type Dry Dock Gates in ShipBuilding and Ship Repair Dry Docks: A Review Paper

Abstract

The search for new, more efficient forms of dock gate designs and contemporary trends has led to the construction of increasingly more complex elements including many that still require an economically viable construction system. Caisson type Dry Dock gates need to evolve into a great extent of modernization and to be adapted to the latest technology demands. The use of composite materials could be considered in Dry-Dock gates, particularly in the Caisson type dock gates. The study done on this has shown us that caissons in composite materials are cost-effective and could be a solution for future development. Furthermore, the possibility of using recyclable composites opens up big opportunities of using these materials at an affordable cost. Caissons in composites or recycled composites are then a real alternative to caisson gates made up of steel construction. The feasibility of using the composites in Caisson Gate manufacturing has been justified considering design, analytical, technical and environmental issues and by using the various load cases such as hydrostatic loads, gravity loads, seismic loads, impact loads and their various combinations, etc. and a wider approach of the economic analysis has been done throughout the life cycle assessment of such gates. The new sustainable way of design approach has been adopted for the design of caisson gates with low-cost composite materials for lowering the costs of construction. In addition, the next step in caisson shapes is to develop with recycled composites. This is being the first technical paper (a review paper) from the authors on this subject and further studies, research and development are going on. Based on the studies going on, the next series of technical papers with analysis and results will be published in various journals in due course.