Inspection, maintenance, and repair of waterfront facilities require an efficient method of removing marine fouling and corrosion from underwater structures. The Naval Civil Engineering Lab (NCEL) conducted an evaluation of commercially available methods of underwater surface cleaning on waterfront structures. Based upon the results of the tests, it was concluded that no single system possessed the necessary combination of safety and operational characteristics needed to meet the Navy's waterfront structure cleaning requirements. Therefore, in 1981 a prototype high-pressure waterjet cleaning system was developed that incorporated the best features identified during the commercial system evaluations. In 1982 and 1983 the prototype waterjet cleaning system was tested, modified, and field-evaluated. It was determined that the high-pressure waterblaster was best-suited for cleaning steel underwater structures, particularly in limited access areas, while on concrete underwater structures the best cleaning tool was found to be the Whirl Away rotary abrading hydraulic too. Both concrete and steel underwater structures can be effectively and efficiently cleaned using the NCEL system, since one power source can drive both the Whirl Away hydraulic tool and the NCEL waterjet pistol.
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