Feasibility Study on a Submerged Floating Tunnel for the Qiongzhou Strait in China

Currently, one of the challenging tasks for the structural engineering is to construct a waterway crossing for the Qiongzhou Strait in the south of China. This project has also gained significant attention from researchers in academia. The study presented herein is centered on providing a feasible solution for accomplishing the above mentioned task. Initially, different alternative locations, judged on the basis of the environmental constraints, are studied. Then a comparison between various structural solutions, such as suspension bridge, submarine tunnel and SFT, presents the SFT as a suitable alternative for Qiongzhou Strait waterway crossing due to distinctive advantages, like, among others, shorter distance, lower cost, less impact on environment and navigation, etc. Based on the appropriate conception for cross sections, support systems, materials, joints and connection, a numerical FE model is developed by means of the software ANSYS/Fluent. The SFT structural behavior is analyzed under the influence of different environmental loading conditions, varying the wave heights and lengths, current velocities and water depths, which are typical in Qiongzhou Strait. The numerical results reveal that the proposed SFT solution performs safely even under extreme weather conditions.