Novel wreck salvaging method using curved rectangular pipe basing method: A case study of “Yangtze River Estuary II” ancient shipwreck salvage project

Abstract

Shipwreck salvage is a risky, time-consuming, and expensive process. Although there are many sunken ships along coastlines and in the open seas, the salvage process of a sunken ship has rarely been reported. The integrated salvage of the “Yangtze River Estuary II” shipwreck used a novel method with 22 closely locked curved rectangular pipes to form a watertight base that wrapped the shipwreck inside. The basing was lifted out of the water using a powerful crane situated on an engineering ship. For the first time, the tunneling method was used in a shipwreck salvage project, significantly reducing the disturbance to the shipwreck and its stowage, thereby preserving the original state and integrity of the shipwreck to the greatest extent. In this study, the basic concepts of the salvage method and process are explained. Solutions to critical issues in the new salvage method are provided, including jacking force prediction and major considerations for the structural design of the salvage system. The design of the salvage system and salvage process of the “Yangtze River Estuary II” shipwreck are introduced. The monitored jacking force, pipe deformation, and observed water-tightness verified that the proposed method was effective and efficient. Other possible application scenarios for the proposed method are presented at the end.

Keywords

Pipe jacking / Shipwreck salvage / Yangtze River Estuary II / Structural design

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Qianwei Zhuang: Investigation, Validation, Writing-original draft. Guofang Gong: Supervision, Resources, Project administration. Dongrong Zhou: Funding acquisition, Resources, Project administration. Chi Zhang: Visualization, Software. Xin Huang: Conceptualization, Writing-review & editing, Methodology. Xiaodong Zhu: Visualization. Deng Li: Formal analysis.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

The research was supported by Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan (Grant Nos. 21DZ1201103 and 21DZ1201104) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52278407).

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