Design and Fabrication of Concrete-Reinforced Floating Platform for Canal and River-Shore Protection

Abstract

Erosion of canal and river-shore causes problems on agriculture activities and soil environment. This paper devotes to develop a floating platform to protect the shores. A concrete-reinforced floating platform was designed and fabricated in this study. Mechanical simulation was performed to ensure the design viability. The concrete-reinforced floating platform consists of three main parts: (1) steel structure, (2) foam-cement material, and (3) connecting joints. The dimension of the cement foam floating platform is 1.2 m in width, 3 m in length and 0.4 m in thickness. The cement used in this research is resistant to corrosion of sulfate and chloride from saltwater. Foam with density of 12 kg/m3 is mixed with concrete matrix so that the floating platform can float 60% or 0.16 m above the water surface. The foam cement material has the maximum compression stress of 1,951 kg ± 266.59 kg for the material density of 427.30 kg/m3 ± 19.30 kg/m3. The connecting joint part has the ultimate tensile load of 1,564 kg. The assemble floating platform has the compressive stress of 543.33 kg/m2 with the maximum vertical deformation of samples of 1 mm under the distribution load of 1,571 over the samples. Finally, from simulation with data from the material testing, the designed floating platform had a safety factor 3.46 which was higher than the design criteria of 3.