As a new type of structure which has never been built, submerged floating tunnel was studied mainly by numerical simulations. To further study the seismic response of a submerged floating tunnel, the first model experiment of submerged floating tunnel (SFT) under the earthquake was carried out on the unique underwater shaking table in China. The experimental results show that vertical excitation induces larger response than horizontal and different inclination degrees of the tether also cause different seismic responses. Subsequently, based on the fluid-structure interaction theory, the corresponding numerical model is established. And comparing the numerical results with the experimental results, those of shaking table test. Numerical model adopted is effective for it is shown that the numerical results are basically identical with dynamic response of SFT.
A mathematical equation for vibration of submerged floating tunnel tether under the effects of earthquake and parametric excitation is presented. Multi-step Galerkin method is used to simplify this equation and the fourth-order Runge-Kuta integration method is used for numerical analysis. Finally, vibration response of submerged floating tunnel tether subjected to earthquake and parametric excitation is analyzed in a few numerical examples. The results show that the vibration response of tether varies with the seismic wave type; the steady maximum mid-span displacement of tether subjected to seismic wave keeps constant when parametric resonance takes place; the transient maximum mid-span displacement of tether is related to the peak value of input seismic wave acceleration.