Plastic piers protect against shipworms.

Researchers at the University of Maine, USA, have developed a new technique that uses FRPs to protect wooden piers and other marine structures from shipworm attack.

Over time, shipworms turn solid wood into a brittle honeycomb structure that eventually crumbles away, causing millions of dollars in damage to piers in ports and harbours worldwide. Engineering Professor Roberto Lopez-Anido hopes to reduce the problem by creating a glass fibre reinforced plastic shield that wraps around wooden piles used in piers and other marine structures. The FRP resists burrowing by the shipworms and is said to be durable in a marine environment.

Shipworms, also called termites of the sea, are not actually worms, but marine molluscs similar to clams. They have long, worm-like bodies with greatly reduced shells at the end. The floating larvae bore tiny holes on the surface of wood, and the adults use their shells to create larger tunnels inside the material. Damage is often discovered too late to do anything except replace the infected structures.

Lopez-Anido hopes his waterfront repair technology will be ready for commercialization in mid-2002.

For further information, contact: Professor Roberto Lopez-Anido, University of Maine, 5711 Boardman Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5711, USA; tel: +1-207-581-2119; fax: +1-207-581-3888; E-mail: rla@ umit.maine.edu; Internet: www.umeciv.maine.edu/rla/