Vibration of submerged floating tunnels due to moving loads

The concept of submerged floating tunnel (SFT) has become an increasingly attractive idea to cross the straits. The structural solution in this scheme includes buoyancy force on tunnel body plus tension in mooring tethers. This paper investigates the effect of submergence on the dynamic response of SFT due to moving load. The inertial effect of the fluid is accounted for by evaluating the added mass of tunnel using two and three dimensional models. It is found that fluid–structure interaction increases dynamic amplification of the tunnel deflection (in some cases very significantly). The results show that although the 3D model predicts lesser inertial contribution for surrounding fluid, it is not always possible to associate the larger response with the 2D or 3D models. The discrepancy between the results of the two models decreases as the tether stiffness increases. This indicates that the adoption of Morison’s equation for evaluating the fluid loading on the tunnel is a reasonable assumption when the tether stiffness is high. It is also found that by increasing the tether stiffness, it is possible to introduce a major reduction in the dynamic amplification of the response and by this way control the dynamic response of the SFT.