Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association ISSN:2233-8292(Print) 2287-4747(Online) 한국터널지하공간학회 논문집

This study focused on shielding through inflatable structure in the event of sudden water inflow into the submerged floating tunnels. Currently, there is a lack of measures to deal with unexpected water in tunnels in Korea. Although water treatment facilities such as waterproofing and floodgates in tunnels are installed, there are limitations to the sudden inflow of large amounts of seawater or underground water. Also, floodgates cannot respond quickly to sudden damage due to slow blocking time. Accordingly, a study was conducted on the shielding rate and axial movement distance for inflatable structure. The results of the reduced model experiment confirmed that the number of inflatable structure and internal pneumatic pressure influence on the shielding rate. As the number of inflatable structure increased from one to two, the shielding rate increased by about 35 up to 40 percent. It was also confirmed that the shielding rate increased by about 4 percent as the internal pneumatic pressure increased from 0.2 bar to 0.3 bar. If we verify and further develop the results identified in this study through a real-size experiment, it will be able to be used as an effective waterproof measure for sudden water inflow into the undersea tunnels or underwater tunnels.