The “Frond Flexiform” Mattress, is a combined buoyant frond scour mat and flexible concrete mattress available in several standard variants, all have the same continuous and significantly overlapping parallel lines of buoyant fibrillated polypropylene fronds attached to and aligned with the lines of the concrete blocks.
No steel members (or any other metals) are used in the blocks – this avoids dissimilar metal corrosion problems that have arisen in the offshore oil and gas industry from the use of slag in rock dumps. The frond line attachment points are moulded into the concrete base blocks.
The “Frond Flexiform” Mattress combines all the features of both a flexible concrete mattress and a buoyant frond scour control mat in one: and in particular it offers the following benefits:
- Installation is simple and swift, and it provides both instant stabilisation / protection with immediate hold down
- The creation of long term fibre reinforced, consolidated and vibration compacted sediment bank build up over the mattress substantially adds to the degree of protection afforded and provides an exceptional reduction in scour potential close to structures
- It provides scour protection for an area somewhat greater than the actual area covered by the mattress
- The individually profiled concrete segments provide a high degree of flexibility in two planes and allow for a complete stabilisation / protection of subsea structures and pipelines and offer a linked flexible foundation to ensure that load is spread evenly over an area
- The fronds prevent edge scour and also halt internecine block (or rock) scour, this eliminates any requirement for the use of geotextile filter screens under a Frond Flexiform Mattress
