Soda residue soil (SRS) is a man-made engineering foundation soil formed by soda residue; it is mainly distributed in coastal areas in China. SRS is rich in a variety of corrosive salts, among which the concentrations of chloride ions are about 2–3 times that of seawater. These highly concentrated chloride ions migrate and diffuse in reinforced concrete (RC) structures built on coastal SRS through multiple transport mechanisms. However, current research on the durability of RC structures exposed to the coastal SRS environment has not led to the publication of any reports in the literature. SRS may be classified by analyzing the quantitative relationships among the corrosive ions it contains. In this paper, the deterioration of RC structures due to the corrosive saline-soil environment in China is discussed, and advances in RC structure durability under such circumstances are reviewed. Our findings show that a corrosive environment, especially when this is a result of coastal SRS, has a significant influence on the deterioration of RC structures, greatly threatening such buildings. A series of effective measures for enhancing the durability of RC structures in saline soil, including improvements in concrete strength, reductions in the water–binder ratio, the addition of mineral admixtures and fiber-reinforcing agents, etc., could provide a vital foundation for enhancing the durability of RC structures which are at risk due to coastal SRS. Vital issues that must be investigated regarding the durability of RC structures are proposed, including the transport mechanism and a prediction model of corrosive ions, dominated by chloride ions (Cl⁻), in SRS and RC structures, the deterioration mechanism of RC materials, a long-term performance deduction process of RC components, durability design theory, and effective performance enhancement measures. The findings of this paper provide some clear exploration directions for the development of basic theories regarding RC structure durability in coastal SRS environments and go some way to making up for the research gap regarding RC structure durability under corrosive soil environments.

Due to the large scale of navigation ships, the fast speed of entering the lock, and the irregular mooring and the complicated flow conditions in the lock chamber, it is common for the floating bollards of the lock to suffer structural damage or even failure due to the overloaded mooring force. However, the traditional cable load measurement method cannot offer real-time feedback on force characteristics of floating bollards, making it difficult to accurately judge its service status. To this end, according to the floating bollard structure type and load condition of a representative ship lock project in China, this paper determines the theoretical model parameters of a floating bollard load response based on three-dimensional finite element numerical simulation test data and constructs a modified load response model of floating bollards. On this basis, an intelligent floating bollard monitoring system based on big data, internet, and cloud services is developed to intelligently perceive real-time floating bollard force characteristics and monitor the long-term service status. Relying on a representative ship lock in China, a field test of the floating bollard intelligent monitoring system is carried out. The relative error between the calculated values via the model (i.e., system exhibition results) based on the numerical results and the field-measured values is within 15%. This result verified the accuracy and effect of the monitoring system. This research supports the establishment of the digital perception monitoring platform for ship lock facilities and improves the automation level of ship lock operation and management as well as overall risk prevention and control capabilities.

Sea locks that connect inland canals and rivers to the open sea are crucial links that ensure the efficient navigation of ships. Floating bollards (FBs) are significant components of sea locks, and they are affected by factors such as large ships, speed of entry, and irregular mooring lines coupled with corrosion by chloride salts from seawater intrusion from the environment. These factors aggravate damage to metal structures, which seriously threatens the safety of FBs. Overloading of FBs by mooring forces caused by the illegal use of FBs for the braking of large ships that enter locks at excessive speed is the main cause of structural damage and overload failure for FBs. Controlling the dynamic mooring force acting on the FB is an important prerequisite to ensure the safe passage of a ship through a lock. It is impossible to perform real-time monitoring of the magnitude and direction of the mooring force on an FB by installing load-measuring equipment on the mooring line. Therefore, in this study, the structure of an FB in a sea lock project was taken as an example, and the mathematical relationships between the strain in the load-sensitive area of the FB and the mooring force and the mooring angle were quantified. A dynamic inversion model of the ship mooring force on an FB was proposed. This model used real-time feedback from the strain signal in the load-sensitive region of the FB structure to obtain information about the mooring force. The accuracy of the model was verified by conducting tests with a physical model of the topside structure of the FB and comparing the predicted results with the test data. The research results can lay a theoretical foundation for real-time monitoring of the structural response of an FB under the action of mooring forces and promote the development of intelligent methods for the operation and maintenance of a sea lock, which have important scientific significance and engineering value.

Due to the sea water intrusion and the development trend of using large-scale ships, more stringent requirements are put forward for the safety of water delivery process and the mooring equipment operation for the sea shiplock. The maximum loads for the mooring equipment of sea shiplock, i.e., floating mooring column (FMC), are generally occurred at the end of water delivery. The superimposed effect of turbulent flow and marine corrosive environment can accelerate the failure of the floating mooring column structure for the sea shiplock, which leads to the safety incidents, including the structural damage of FMC and the breakage of mooring lines for the ship, etc. The safety of the FMC is mostly influenced by three factors, including the ship’s tonnage, the water flow environment of the locked room, and the lock operation technologies; among these, the water flow environment can be considered the most significant. In practice, because the mooring load of an FMC due to water delivery from the shiplock is very complicated, there is currently no mature approach to condition monitoring. This investigation aims to address a large sea shiplock, and the optimal regulation approach for water delivery of shiplock is established based on a load monitoring methodology for FMCs. The detection accuracy of the FMC mooring loads is controlled by simulation verification with errors less than 10%. During the optimized water delivery process, the exerted loads on the FMCs are noticeably reduced to be lower than the maximum design rating. The innovative approach is essentially based on an inversion calculation of the load response model for obtaining the mooring loads of FMCs, with the monitored load results used to regulate and optimize the water delivery process of the shiplocks. The research results can fill a part of the research gap of FMC mooring load condition monitoring method in shiplock water delivery, and provide technical support for the safety of shiplock water delivery process and mooring equipment operation.