Floating port - Design, construction, and test

Abstract

The concept of a Very Large Size Floating Structure (VLFS) has been adopted to develop new port facilities and help overcome problems associated with high-priced, limited land properties. Recently, a large-size floating concrete structure (164 feet x 98 feet x 16 feet), (50 m x 30 m x 5 m) was designed, constructed, and installed in Geoje Island, South Korea in order to perform a field model test of a future floating container terminal in an actual marine environment. This structure is a 6:1 scaled model of the actual floating port facility (984 feet x 590 feet x 26 feet), (300 m x 180 m x 8 m) and its stability in both operational and extreme conditions was evaluated. The facility consists of four rigidly connected individual floating modules. Innovative module connection design and procedures in seawater were developed. Field test results confirmed the feasibility of an effective future floating container terminal, corresponding to the results from the numerical analysis in a simulated marine environment. After completion of the field test, the floating concrete structure was installed at a permanent location in the Samsung Heavy Industry Shipyard adjacent to a floating dry dock facility. It is currently used as a floating parking lot and rest area during ship building, and as a temporary storage area for ship-building equipment during ship launching. This large size floating facility not only saves expensive upland parking and storage space, but also significantly improves ship building efficiency by saving time in transferring heavy equipment between the dry dock and upland storage area. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.