Overview of experimental tests on SFT small scale specimen

Submerged floating tunnel (SFT) is a new type of transportation infrastructure for waterway crossings. It is a tubular structure submerged in the water at a fixed depth and stabilized by appropriate anchoring systems, which exploits the load carrying capability of water due to the Archimede buoyancy. It features several advantages as respect to conventional structures from the structural and environmental points of view. In spite of this, no SFT has been constructed yet. Actually there is a lack of knowledge on the SFT behavior under both traffic and environmental actions, like currents, waves and earthquakes, which can be filled through tests on small scale models of SFT. At this aim, the paper deals with a literature review of the physical tests performed up to now for investigating the hydrodynamic behavior of SFTs. The main peculiarities of test setups, equipments and procedures applied are pointed out and main outcomes are discussed.