ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the theoretical background for the ship protection islands for the Great Belt suspension bridge in Denmark. It focuses on the design aspects related to ship grounding. The chapter describes a theoretical model, which predicts the ship motions, the loads and the deformations during a ship grounding event on a soft sea bed. The suspension bridge of the fixed link across the Great Belt in Denmark is crossing the main navigation channel to the Baltic Sea - the “Route T”. The ship traffic in the navigational channel is regulated to ‘right hand’ sailing in a two-lane traffic separation arrangement. The chapter identifies the mechanisms governing the impact loading on the bridge structure and the loading of the ship hull girder relative to its strength. The greatest challenge of developing a theoretical model for grounding on soft sea beds is establishing an accurate model for calculation of the soil reaction.
