• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1191-1199
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• 2018

Concepts of submerged floating tunnels (SFTs) for land connection have been continuously suggested and developed by several researchers and institutes. To maintain their predefined positions under various dynamic environmental loading conditions, the submerged floating tunnels should be effectively moored by reasonable mooring systems. With rational mooring systems, the design of SFTs should be confirmed to satisfy the structural safety, fatigue, and operability design criteria related to tunnel motion, internal forces, structural stresses, and the fatigue life of the main structural members. This paper presents a feasibility study of a submerged floating tunnel moored by an inclined tendon system. The basic structural concept was developed based on the concept of conventional cable-stayed bridges to minimize the seabed excavation, penetration, and anchoring work by applying tower-inclined tendon systems instead of conventional tendons with individual seabed anchors. To evaluate the structural performance of the new type of SFT, a hydrodynamic analysis was performed in the time domain using the commercial nonlinear finite element code ABAQUS-AQUA. For the main dynamic environmental loading condition, an irregular wave load was examined. A JONSWAP wave spectrum was used to generate a time-series wave-induced hydrodynamic load considering the specific significant wave height and peak period for predetermined wave conditions. By performing a time-domain hydrodynamic analysis on the submerged floating structure under irregular waves, the motional characteristics, structural stresses, and fatigue damage of the floating tunnel and mooring members were analyzed to evaluate the structural safety and fatigue performance. According to the analytical study, the suggested conceptual model for SFTs shows very good hydrodynamic structural performance. It can be concluded that the concept can be considered as a reasonable structural type of SFT.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2020

Submerged floating tunnel (SFT) is a type of tunnel which causes the tunnel segments to float in the water. When the SFTs are connected to the ground, the connection between the SFT and the subsea bored tunnel is fragile due to the difference in behavioral characteristics between the two types of tunnels. Therefore, special design and construction methods are needed to ensure the stability of the area around the connection. However, since previous research on the stability of the connection site has not been undertaken enough, the basic step necessitates the evaluation of ground behavior at the shore connection. In this study, the numerical analysis targeting the shore connection between the subsea bored tunnel and the SFT was simulated. The strain concentration at the shore connection was analyzed by numerical simulation and the effects of several factors were examined. The results showed the instability in the ground close to the shore connection due to the imbalance in the behavior of the two types of tunnels; the location of the strain concentration varies with different environmental and structural conditions. It is expected that the results from this study can be utilized in future studies to determine weak points in the shore connection between the submerged floating tunnel and the subsea bored tunnel, and devise methods to mitigate the risks.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.955-967
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• 2016

As transportation systems for connecting lands and islands, oversea long-span bridges, underwater tunnels, and immersed tunnels have been mainly used so far. Submerged floating tunnels (SFTs) moored under specific water depth are one of the newest oversea transportation system. Compared to other existing systems, the new system requires relatively less construction cost and time. But, there is still no construction example. For reasonable design of the tunnel and mooring lines the rational structural analysis should be firstly performed. Unlike common transportation structures, the submerged tunnels are mainly affected by the wave, vary irregular excitation component. So, the analysis scheme might be difficult because of the characteristics of the submerged structures. This study aims to suggest the rational global performance analysis methodology for the submerged tunnels. Using ABAQUS the dynamic response of the experimental models studied by KIOST (2013) was investigated considering regular waves. By comparing the simulation results with the experimental results, the feasibility of the numerical simulation was verified. Using the suggested method, the effects of initial inclination of the tethers and draft of the tunnel on the dynamic behavior were studied. In addition, dynamic response of a SFT under the irregular wave was examined.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.77-89
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• 2020

Submerged floating tunnel (SFT) is a type of tunnel that allows tunnel segments to float underwater by buoyancy, and is being actively studied in recent years. When the submerged floating tunnel is connected to the ground, the tunnel and the bored tunnel inside the ground must be connected. There is risk that the stress will be concentrated at the connection between the two tunnels due to the different constraints and behavior of the two tunnels. Therefore, special design and construction methods should be applied to ensure the stability around the connection. However, previous studies on the stability at the connection site have not been sufficiently carried out, so study on the basic stage of the stability at connection site are necessary. In this study, numerical analysis simulating the connection between submerged floating tunnel and the bored tunnel confirmed that the shear strain concentration occurred in the ground around the connection, and it was analyzed that the structural factors can be handled during construction to have effects on the stability of the ground around the connection. Numerical results show that the risks from disproportionate displacements in the two tunnels can be mitigated through the construction of grouting material and joint design. Although the results from this study are qualitative results, it is expected that it will contribute to the determination of structural factors and risk areas that should be considered in the design of connections between the submerged floating tunnel and bored tunnel in the future studies.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2017

This paper presents the numerical simulation results for the dynamic responses of two types of submerged floating tunnels (SFT) under wave and/or seismic excitations. Time domain simulations are conducted by the commercial program OrcaFlex (OF) and in-house CHARM3D program (CP). The dynamic performances of a short/rigid/free-end SFT section with vertical and inclined mooring lines are evaluated. The SFT numerical models were validated against Oh et al.'s (2013) model test results under regular wave conditions. Then the numerical models were further applied to the cases of irregular waves or seismic motions. The main results presented are SFT surge/heave motions and mooring tensions. The general trends and magnitudes obtained by the two different software packages reasonably agree to each other along with experimental results. When seabed seismic motions are applied to the SFT system, the dynamic responses of SFTs are small but dynamic mooring tension can significantly be amplified. In particular, horizontal earthquakes greatly increase the dynamic tension of the inclined mooring system, while vertical earthquakes cause similar effect on vertical mooring system.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.101-112
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• 2023

When a submerged floating tunnel is connected to the ground, there is a risk of stress concentration at the shore connection owing to the displacement imbalance caused by low confinement pressures in water and high confinement pressures in the ground. Here, the effects of the boundary condition and stiffness of the joints installed at the shore connection on the behaviors of a submerged floating tunnel and its shore connection were analyzed using a numerical method. The analysis results obtained with fixed and ground boundaries were similar due to the high stiffness of the ground boundary. However, the stability of the shore connection was found to be improved with the ground boundary as a small displacement was allowed at the boundary. The effect of the joint stiffness was evaluated by investigating the dynamic behavior of the submerged floating tunnel, the magnitude of the load acting on the bored tunnel, and the stress distribution at the shore connection. A lower joint stiffness was found to correspond to more effective relief of the stress concentration at the shore connection. However, it was confirmed that joints with low stiffness also increase the submerged floating tunnel displacement and decrease the frequency of the dynamic behavior, causing a risk of increased resonance when wave loads with low frequency are applied. Therefore, it is necessary to derive the optimal joint stiffness that can achieve both stress concentration relief and resonance prevention during the design of shore connections to secure their dynamic stability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.04a
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• pp.719-721
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• 2014

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.207-218
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• 2022

In submerged floating tunnels (SFTs), a next-generation maritime transportation infrastructure, the tunnel module floats in water due to buoyancy. For the effective and economical use of SFTs, connection with the ground is inevitable, but the stability of the shore connection is weak due to stress concentration caused by the displacement difference between the subsea bored tunnel and the SFT. The use of an elastic joint has been proposed as a solution to solve the stability problem, but it changes the dynamic characteristics of the SFT, such as natural frequency and mode shape. In this study, the finite element method (FEM) was used to simulate the elastic joints in shore connections, assuming that the ground is a hard rock without displacement. In addition, a small-scale model test was performed for FEM model validation. A parametric study was conducted on the resonance behavior such as the natural frequency change and velocity, stress, and reaction force distribution change of the SFT system by varying the joint stiffness under loading conditions of various frequencies and directions. The results indicated that the natural frequency of the SFT system increased as the stiffness of the elastic joint increased, and the risk of resonance was the highest in the low-frequency environment. Moreover, stress concentration was observed in both the SFT and the shore connection when resonance occurred in the vertical mode. The results of this study are expected to be utilized in the process of quantitative research such as designing elastic joints to prevent resonance in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2017

As well as the strength check, fatigue life check is also mainly required for designing mooring lines of the floating structures. In general, forces which induce dynamic structural response significantly affect to fatigue design of the mooring lines. So, waves are mainly considered as the governing loading for fatigue design of the mooring lines. In this study, characteristics of the fatigue damage of the mooring lines for submerged floating tunnels (SFT) under irregular waves are investigated. For this study time domain hydrodynamic analysis is used to obtain motion of the tunnel and tension and stresses of the mooring lines under the specific environmental conditions. Also, the Rainflow-counting method, the Palmgren-Miner's rule, and S-N curves for floating offshore structures presented by DNV recommendation is applied to calculate the fatigue damage due to the fluctuating stresses. Referring to the design plactice of the tendon pipes for TLP (tension-leg platform), which is very similar structural system to SFT, it is assumed that a 100 year return period wave attacks the SFT systems during 48 hours and the fatigue damages due to the environmental loading are calculated. Following the analysis sequence, the effects of the tunnel draft, spacing and initial inclination angle of the mooring lines on the fatigue damage under the specific environmental loadings are investigated.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.109-123
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• 2015

In the present study, the coupled dynamic response of a Submerged Floating Tunnel (SFT) and mooring lines under regular waves is solved by using two independent numerical simulation methods, OrcaFlex and CHARM3D, in time domain. Variations of Buoyancy to Weight Ratio (BWR), wave steepness/period, and water/submergence depth are considered as design and environmental parameters in the study. Two different mooring-line configurations, vertical and inclined, are studied to find an optimum design in terms of limiting tunnel motions and minimizing mooring-line tension. The numerical results are successfully validated by direct comparison against published experimental data. The results show that tunnel motions and tether tensions grow with wave height and period and decrease with submergence depth. The inclined mooring system is more effective in restricting tunnel motions compared to the vertical mooring system. Overall, the present study demonstrates the feasibility of this type of structure as an alternative to traditional bridges or under-seabed tunnels.