Influence of material deterioration on strength properties of hydraulic timber structures

Hydraulic timber structures such as mooring poles, fenders, lock gates and jetties are widely-used in inner and sea harbours all over the world. In general these structures give satisfactory performance with regard to the technical requirements. Because of the harsh exposure conditions such as brackish and contaminated water, drying-out, mechanical impact, deterioration processes have to be monitored with regard to the service life performance. In order to develop service life prediction models for such structures, degradation characteristics have to be identified and classified regarding strength properties. This research makes a first attempt to classify the degradation in relation with strength properties.