Design Analysis and Validation of the Submerged Floating Tube Bridge Over the Bjørnefjord

A brief review of the design, analysis, numerical validation and model tests work of the submerged floating tube bridge (SFTB) crossing the Bjornefjord carried out by the NPRA is presented. Emphasis is on addressing the challenges of design analysis for such an unconventional and extreme marine civil engineering structure. First- and second-order wave loads and responses, current-induced loads and response, and other types of loads and responses are included in the analysis. For the carried out phase of design, efforts have been made to identify the importance of different types of loads and responses. The validation of the most important design parameters follows in two folds. Possibilities of performing some scale tests have been evaluated, identifying great challenges related to representing correctly a long tube structure in an ocean basin subjected to reasonable modelling of loads. In addition, the issue of code-to-code validation of design tools has been discussed.