Simultaneous Estimation of Submerged Floating Tunnel Displacement and Mooring Cable Tension through FIR Filter-Based Strain and Acceleration Fusion

Abstract

A submerged floating tunnel (SFT) is a tunnel structure that floats approximately 50 m below the water surface and is anchored to the seabed by mooring cables. It is a new alternative to conventional bridges and immersed tunnels. There have been ongoing efforts to construct SFTs worldwide, and the integrity of these SFTs needs to be monitored throughout their lifespan. This study simultaneously estimated the tunnel displacement and mooring cable tension force using acceleration and strain measurements to assess the integrity of an SFT. First, strain measurements were transformed to displacement using simplified mode shapes and mode-scaling factors, which did not require the true mode shapes of the SFT. The mode-scaling factors were automatically estimated using initial strain and acceleration measurements. Then, the strain-based displacement was combined with the acceleration measurement using a finite impulse response filter to improve the displacement estimation accuracy. In addition, the tension force of a mooring cable was estimated from the displacement at the connection between the tunnel and mooring cable. The feasibility of the proposed technique was examined through a series of numerical simulations and laboratory tests on an 8 m-long aluminum SFT mock-up structure.