The Effect of Subgrade Coefficient on Static Work of a Pontoon Made as a Monolithic Closed Tank

Abstract

This article presents the effect of taking into account the subgrade coefficient on static work of a pontoon with an internal partition, made in one stage and treated computationally as a monolithic closed rectangular tank. An exemplary pontoon is a single, ready-made shipping element that can be used as a float for a building. By assembling several floats together, the structure can form a floating platform. Due to the increasingly violent weather phenomena and the necessity to ensure safe habitation for people in countries at risk of inundation or flooding, amphibious construction could provide new solutions. This article presents calculations for a real pontoon made in one stage for the purpose of conducting research. Since it is a closed structure without any joint or contact, it can be concluded that it is impossible for water to get inside. However, in order to exclude the possibility of the pontoon filling with water, its interior was filled with Styrofoam. For static calculations, the variational approach to the finite difference method was used, assuming the condition for the minimum energy of elastic deflection during bending, taking into account the cooperation of the tank walls with the Styrofoam filling treated as a Winkler elastic substrate and assuming that Poisson’s ratio ν = 0. Based on the results, charts were made illustrating the change in bending moments at the characteristic points of the analysed tank depending on acting loads. The calculations included hydrostatic loads on the upper plate and ice floe pressure as well as buoyancy, stability and metacentric height of the pontoon. The aim of the study is to show a finished product—a single-piece pontoon that can be a prefabricated element designed for use as a float for “houses on water”.