Structural dynamic performance of floating continuous beam bridge under wave and current loadings: An experimental study

Very large floating bridges supported by pontoons are thought to have a promising prospect in crossing the wide and deep water areas, especially for those with weak foundation. The floating bridges are directly subjected to the wave and current actions, and remains in the state of stochastic vibration during their whole service life; thus, the dynamic behavior is an important issue in the structural design process of such type of structure. However, limited experimental researches on the floating bridge structures have been reported in literature. This paper presents a scaled model test regarding to a floating continuous beam bridge with mooring system, where the actions of wave, current, and their combinations are considered. The hydrodynamic responses of the structure, including the displacements, internal forces and support reactions, have been finely measured by the established data collection system. The recorded data have been processed based on statistical and spectral analyses, so as to comprehensively investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of the tested floating bridge, and further to identify the influences of wave and current loads on the structural performance. The presented research work gives an insight on the hydrodynamic performance of the deep-water floating continuous beam bridge with mooring system, and also extends the experience on the design and implementation of the experimental study of floating bridge structures. The presented test data can also provide a reference for the calibration of numerical investigations.