Target reliability for submerged floating tunnels

Abstract

The Submerged Floating Tunnels can be applied in crossings with large depth and/or large widths, it might be one of the few options left to build a fixed link between two shores. The Submerged Floating Tunnel is not a typical and traditional structure as it could not be identified as a pure civil structure. It also has components of other fields of application such as off-shore structures (platforms), naval structures (ships and submarines) and marine structures (breakwaters) that use different approaches to derive a target reliability for the design. In this paper, the reliability approach of the different fields of applications are examined and combined to find a specific target reliability approach for Submerged Floating Tunnel structures. Not only structural reliability is considered but the identification of acceptable risks with respect to life and economical consequences are taken into account. This is done by reviewing literature and guidelines on target reliability in aforementioned fields.