Friction behaviour of inflatable structure system to protect rapidly flooding damages in subsea tunnel

Yoo, Kwang-San; Lee, Ji‐Hyun; Kim, Yeon-Deok; Kim, Sang‐Hwan

doi:10.9711/ktaj.2016.18.1.109

Cited by 1 publication

(7 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…These results confirmed the need to include an oversizing (in the range of 10 to 15%) in the transversal perimeter of inflatable to have extra membrane material that could close the gaps generated by the presence of pipes, cables and duct banks. Similar observations were made in the smallscale experiment carried out by Yoo et al (2016) [35].…”

Section: Phase 1proof Of Conceptsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Water was also used to simulate the flooding behind the plug. The idea of using a small-scale tunnel was also implemented in [32,35,36] to test friction and stability characteristics, as well as the deployment of small scale inflatables. Similarly to Phase 1, testing activities carried out as part of Phase 2 were focused on the following three main areas:…”

Section: Results Of Experimental Evaluationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this reason, a readily available commercial fabric (polyester with flexible PVC coating) was selected as material for manufacturing the initial prototypes recognizing that a much stronger fabric material would be needed for higher inflation pressures required to contain flooding pressures. Similar membrane materials were used in the smallscale prototypes tested in [33,35,36] in their lowpressure (< 1.5 kPa) evaluations. Careful preparation of the plug, including folding, packing and installation of passive restrainers during the folding process, was essential to achieving a compact folded shape first, and then, to produce a sequential release of the membrane to control the unstressed fabric material better as it gradually deployed and accommodated to the form of the tunnel profile.…”

Section: Phase 1proof Of Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the quarter-scale tests (1.22 m tunnel diameter) completed during this phase, the inflatable plug was taken safely to the reference pressure of 468 kPa while holding a flooding pressure of 330 kPa without slipping [88,89]. As a reference, the reduced-scale studies carried out in [32,35,36] included tunnel diameters in the range of 0.2 m to 0.4 m for pressures in the range of 10 kPa to 50 kPa. The decoupling of the functions of the plug membrane prevented compromising unloaded segments of fabric material during pressurization.…”

Section: Phase 2bmultiple Layer Membrane Design Initial Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Flooding of transportation tunnel systems is a problem in Asia too. Several studies were recently conducted in China and South Korea to assess flooding risk [31] and to develop small-scale inflatable systems [32][33][34][35][36]. Other similar and more recent efforts in Europe include the INFLATER project [37], also the inflatables developed in Spain [38,39] and Germany [40] for creating flood barriers of virtually any length along a body of water or other surface-related flood hazards, but not for flooding events in confined environments such as tunnels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large-scale inflatable structures for tunnel protection: a review of the Resilient Tunnel Plug project

Sosa

Thompson

Holter

et al. 2020

J Infrastruct Preserv Resil

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The protection of underground civil infrastructure continues to be a high priority for transportation and transit security agencies. In particular, rail transit tunnels running under bodies of water are susceptible to disruptions due to flooding caused by extraordinary climatic events such as hurricanes or other events resulting from human activities. Several events have taken place in the past decades that have demonstrated the need to mitigate vulnerabilities or, at least, minimize the consequences of catastrophic events. Although it is impossible to prevent all situations that can lead to flooding, damage can be substantially decreased by reducing the area affected by the event. To minimize the effects of an event, a possible approach is to compartmentalize the tunnel system by creating temporary barriers that can contain the propagation of flooding until a more permanent solution can be implemented. One way to create a temporary barrier is by the deployment of a large-scale inflatable structure, also known as an inflatable plug. In such an application, the inflatable structure is prepared for placement, either permanently or temporally, and maintained ready for deployment, inflation, and pressurization when needed. The internal plug pressure imparts a normal force against the tunnel wall surface with the friction between the plug and tunnel surfaces opposing axial movement of the plug. The sealing effectiveness depends on the ability of the inflatable structure to self-deploy and fit, without human intervention, to the intricacies of the perimeter of the conduit being sealed. Primary design constraints include having the plug stowed away from the dynamic envelope of the trains and being able to withhold the pressure of the flooding water. This work presents a compilation of the main aspects of the activities completed for the development of large-scale inflatable structures as part of the Resilient Tunnel Plug (RTP) Project. The main test results and lessons learned are presented to demonstrate the viability of implementing large-scale inflatable plugs for the containment of flooding in rail tunnels systems. Over 400 coupon and specimen tests, 200 reduced scale tests, and 100 full-scale tests were conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of the design of different prototypes over a 10-year research and development project. The culmination of the work was 12 large-scale flooding demonstrations where the inflatable tunnel plug was shown able to be deployed remotely and withstand a simulated flooding event.

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Section: Phase 1proof Of Conceptsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Results Of Experimental Evaluationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Phase 1proof Of Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%