The technology bottleneck, reason why marine powers never evolved to floating cities…
Although there have been many marine powers in human history, (Minoic, Phoenizian, Polinesian, Vikings, Arabs, Venice, Spain, Portugal, England) none of them developed floating cities to create oceanic trade hubs, and control, dominate, marine commerce by means of a oceanic city VENICE style .
This seems not logic in the first thought but it becomes clear when we remember that the only availble building material for floating structures in those times was wood - a fast victim to the Teredo worm (within 16 weeks) and biofouling that made permanent floating structures a dream impossible to achive. Even with this ridicoulusly short lifespan of somtimes just 16 weeks at sea marine empires where built on the value and power of wooden ships.
Steelbuilding of floating structures introduced by Isambard Brunel in 1845 made floating structures a bit longer lasting - steel ships can have a maintenance free service life of some 5 years (Prelude LNG floating industrial plant) and a total service life of some 15-30 years (includes plating renewal ) until they are "structurally gone" to the point of scrap.
But this is still a "poor service life" for a floating real estate development. Real estate development requires a service life of hundereds of years (similar to land buildings).
Modern concrete floating structures can deliver the necessary service lifespan to make oceanic real estate development feasible.
Concrete has clearly emerged as the most economical and durable material for the building of the vast majority of marine structures.
Reinforced concrete too has overcome the technological problems making it a suitable material for the construction of advanced marine structures such as offshore drilling platforms, superspan bridges and undersea tunnels.
As the world becomes increasingly ocean-oriented for energy and other resources it is predicted that construction activities during the 21st century will be dominated by concrete sea structures.
The performance of concrete in the marine environment is presented here in a logical manner giving state-of-the-art reviews of the nature of the marine environment, the composition and properties of concrete, history of concrete performance in seawater, major causes of deterioration of concrete in the marine environment, selection of materials and mix proportioning for durable concrete, recommended concrete practice and repair of deteriorated marine structures. It is of value to any design or construction engineer responsible for marine structures.
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