Potential of underwater sonar systems for port infrastructure inspection

Due to their involvement in several development areas (economy, industry, tourism, etc.) the maintenance and control of port infrastructure are of prime interest. Currently, quay inspection is carried out by divers using underwater cameras. Besides being time consuming, this approach displays several drawbacks: high cost, diver´s insecurity and lack of precision mainly due to a lack of visibility in turbid water. Therefore, new innovative methods are required to overcome these limitations Sonar technology is a suitable alternative for quay inspection. It is a rapid and safe way to detect various defects in quay. It provides acoustic image whose quality is much higher than that of images supplied by optical means. The capability and performances of these acoustic systems still remain to be assessed. This is the focus of the proposed research work that will be addressed in this paper. The main purpose is to design and develop a method that will enable the detection and characterization of quay defects using acoustic images.