Tether-Supported Submerged Floating Tunnel

Responses under combined loads

Reveals nonlinear dynamic response characteristics of a submerged floating tunnel under combined wave, current, and vehicle loads, providing guidance for cross-sea transportation infrastructure.

Zhu, Hongjun · Zhang, Xu · Xu, Wanhai · Gao, Yue · Xiaodong, Shen

Ocean Engineering 2026

Advantages

Identifies dense low-order modal clusters

Discrete flexible tether layouts create dense low-order modal clusters, especially for cross-flow bending modes, which must be considered in design.

Reveals nonlinear coupled response

Under combined wave-current-vehicle excitations, the SFT response deviates from linear superposition, exhibiting nonlinear multi-source modulation.

Characterizes VIV under current

As steady current velocity increases, the cross-flow VIV region expands spatially, while in-line responses gather around the tunnel mid-span.

Applications

• Cross-sea transportation：Assess submerged floating tunnel responses under complex marine conditions for cross-sea infrastructure design.
• Offshore structural design：Provide a dynamic analysis framework for offshore structures under combined wave-current-vehicle loads.
• Submerged floating tunnels：Reveal nonlinear dynamic characteristics of tether-supported SFTs to optimize tether layout and structural parameters.