The huge floating offshore platform (359m in length, 60m in breadth and 3m in depth) for the validation experiment of floating airport has been towed in the Pacific Ocean. The full-scale measurement of towline tension and bending strain on upper-deck has been made during towing. The measured bending moment agrees well with the numerical calculation without consideration of draught and towing speed.
As the Phase H project of "Research & Development of Huge Floating Offshore Platform" carried out by Mega-FIoat Technological Association, the proto type of floating airport using the large floating platform (1000 m in length, maximum 120 m in breadth and 3 m in depth) was installed at the Tokyo Bay in 1999. The model of floating airport consists of mainly 3 floating units with runway such as A, B and C. They were constructed at different shipping yards and connected together on the sea. The floating structure, 300 m in length and 60 m in breadth, used in the phase I project has been reconstructed as the apron, additional function of the airport as well as runway. A and C unit for runway have been constructed at shipping yard in the Ise Bay and B unit has been done in the Tokyo Bay. The small divided parts of C unit being towed after the construction at several shipyards in the Seto Inland Sea has been connected at NKK. There are very few data concerning the full-scale measurement of such a flat structure with small depth. However, there is a possibility of the occurrence of various kinds of structures in the future for the development of the ocean space utilization. Transportation by towing has been one of the conventional way of techniques from old times, the limitation of experiment however exists because of its big size.
