ABSTRACT
In case of a submerged floating tunnel (SFT), which is difficult to cast in-site underwater construction, it is modularized on land and then assembled them in the field. So, it is influential to investigate the structural performance of the joints between the modules. A concept of the steel composite hollow in SFT which stably maintains the joints has been proposed by applying prestressing method to resist various external loads. In this study, the bending behavior of module joints in a steel composite hollow tunnel was experimentally analyzed to evaluate the safety for the bending deformation which is dominant in SFT. Test results show that there is a difference at the module joint portion in the performance depending on whether or not the inner steel tube is connected. As a result, in the design of the module joint, depending on the purpose of SFT, it is possible to consider both methods which is allowing the ductility behavior of internal tube and controlling the tight connection. And, the failure criterion of the bending behavior of the module joint can be selected as the maximum load or deformation limit.
