Experimental Study on Buoyancy Preflexion on Structural Behavior of Floating Body

In this study, experimental study was carried out for the buoyancy preflexion method to enhance the structural performance of floating concrete structures. In order to investigate the buoyancy preflexion effects on structural performance of the floating body, live load test and buoyancy preflexion test were carried out. In the results of this study, it was found that buoyancy preflexion has a significant influence on the structural performance of floating structures. Whereas the floating body indicated sagging behaviour under the live loads onto the topside, the floating body indicated hogging behaviour under the buoyancy preflexion. Therefore, in case of buoyancy preflexion coupled with live load together, it is expected that the buoyancy preflexion contribute to improve structural performance of floating structure thanks to greater supporting capacity for live loads. The buoyancy preflexion method is simple in both principle and application, and can effectively induce pre-compression on the bottom concrete slab. Therefore, it can be concluded that the buoyancy preflexion method will contribute to the improvement of structural performance and decreasing of the cross-sectional height of floating structures.