| dc.description.abstract | The Norwegian ferry free E39 project aims to cut the current travel time by half from Kristiansand in the south to Trondheim in the north. Crossing the Bjørnafjord, investigated in this thesis, using conventional pier bridge designs is unfeasible. One possible solution to this problem is a floating pontoon bridge. Pontoon bridges can divide a bridge over water into several smaller bridge spans, reducing the required capacity and therefore the size and weight of the bridge. Subsequently, it is important to determine the suitable bridge segmentation and environmental windows for onsite installation and connection.
Numerical analysis on a long floating bridge gave knowledge of the hydrodynamic behavior of bridge segments under different environmental conditions. Perpendicular wave directions induce more moments in the bridge girder, compared to parallel waves. When increasing the wave height from 0,2 to 0,35 and then 0,5 meters there is <1% change in peak moments about the horizontal axis. However, the moments about the vertical axis increase by 200%. The paperwork also shows the effect of wave heights on the strong axis bending being more dominating, however the values in general are low compared to the structural capacity. | en_US |
