Dr Sabet Divsholi Bahador
Managing Director, Global Engineering Creators Pte Ltd,
53 Ubi Avenue 1 #06-05 Paya Ubi Industrial Park Singapore
E-mail: bsabet@ecreators-global.com
Abstract – Concrete is the cheapest construction material and the second most consumed man-maid product after drinking water, which is easily cast to any shape. Concrete technology has evolved very rapidly in recent years and continues to improve with new advancement in construction and materials technology. Early concrete platforms dated to more than 100 years ago with primitive design mixes, materials and construction technique. Since then, many concrete platform constructed some with poor quality and some with very reasonable performance. However, generally the concrete platforms were more durable when compared to steel structures but slower to construct. In past 30 years, there is a new wave of concrete platforms riding on advancement of concrete and construction technology. The owners of concrete platforms now demand for durability design of 100 years or more. The construction time is also significantly reduced. In this paper, some of the historical and recent concrete platforms has been discussed, among with is the recent construction of 138×46 meters concrete drydock built for Marisco ltd with lifting capacity of 8500 tons. Some information on durability of concrete platform has been presented as well. As stationary platform, concrete platforms are more durable, less expensive, safer, and more stable and require less maintenance compared to steel platforms. However, structural and durability design as well as construction experience is critical for successful execution.
Keywords – Floating concrete platforms, concrete technology, durability.
Dr Sabet is Managing Director of Global Engineering Creators Pte Ltd. He is concrete technology specialist with more than 15 years of experience in concrete related research and practice. Dr Sabet actively participate in design and construction of floating concrete platforms. He was part of a team to build a large concrete dry-dock (138×46 meters) for ship-repair. Dr Sabet has more than 50 keynote presentations and publications in relevant journals and conferences. Dr Sabet is President of Singapore Concrete Institute and 2nd Vice President of Society of Floating Solutions Singapore.