Achievement of the preventive maintenance in port and harbor facilities is currently one of the important issues to ensure structural performance such as safety and serviceability. Since 2013, therefore, regular inspection, which is one of the most important maintenance work for the preventive maintenance, has been enforced to be carried out. The performance degradation in the mooring facilities is a matter of utmost concern from the viewpoint of safety assurance of cargo handling work as well as of ship navigation. Since each degradation mechanism in structural components in a mooring facility interacts with other mechanisms, the appropriate inspection items, methods and procedures should be selected to achieve an efficient inspection and diagnosis by taking the concept of ‘performance degradation chain’ into account.
In this paper, the previous ‘performance degradation chain’ proposed in 1986 has been updated in detail with reference to current research activities. Then inspection and diagnosis items to detect each degradation state are summarized. These items are listed in the Guidelines for Inspection and Diagnosis of Port Facilities published by Ports and Harbours Bureau, MLIT. Finally, future perspectives for development of the inspection and diagnosis techniques based on ‘performance degradation chain’ are discussed to realize the preventive maintenance of port and harbor facilities.
Key Words: Performance degradation chain, inspection and diagnosis, open-type wharf, steel sheet pile type quaywall, caisson type quaywall