Today I had the marvelous opportunity to be a tour guide for the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory here on campus. I've been to the wave lab a few times in my lifetime and have learned a lot about Coastal Engineering. When I found out that I was going to get to work at the wave lab I was thrilled because the wave lab is one of the coolest places on campus. I spent the afternoon giving tours where my loud voice and my lack of fear when talking in front of large groups came in handy. A cool thing that happened was that I was noted as "enthusiastic" by both my coworkers and some of the people who we were giving the tours to.
Now that I've been a tour guide I can actually make an individual post about the wave lab...so here we go!
Now that I've been a tour guide I can actually make an individual post about the wave lab...so here we go!
Before I get into the details about the tanks themselves I want to explain a bit about what coastal engineering is and why it's important. Coastal engineers look at the relationship between structures and the ocean. For example they look at how corrosion due to the salt water affects bridges and buildings. They also look at how large structures (or even towns) will stand up to a tsunami. The reason they do the tsunami testing is because there is a fault line called the Cascadia Subduction Zone that is only 50 miles off of the West coast and runs from southern Canada to Northern California. Thanks to geographical data, our engineers know that there is a 9% chance for the entire fault line to rupture within the next 50 years and a 40% chance for the lower third of the fault line to rupture within the next 50 years. Because of how many people live near the coast (on the west in this specific example, but also in general) coastal engineers are very important. Another type of issue that coastal engineers may deal with is errosion. For example, 86% of the Pacific coast is currently eroding. Costal engineers need to find a solution to this problem before we lose land to the ocean. Now that we know why coastal engineers are needed and what they study, we can take a look at the two large tanks that are in the facility.
One of the tanks is 342 feet long (that's longer than a football field), 15 feet deep, and 12 feet high. This tank is called the flume tank and it's one of the largest pieces of testing equipment in the U.S. The flume tank can generate waves that travel up to 4 m/s and up to 5 feet in height. Waves are generate by a single paddle moving back and forth repeatedly. Some really neat things about the flume tank are that it is a 2-D wave generator (we can control the speed and the height of the wave), it was built in 1973 and is still completely operational and in good shape, and it takes 300,000 gallons of water to fill the tank to 9 feet deep. .
Right now there is a research project going on that is being worked on by students from the University of Nevada, students from Oregon State University, and the Federal Highway Administration. They're project was motivated by the 2011 Japan tsunami and how the bridges in Japan were affected. While it was calculated that more than 150 bridges were damaged or swept away, an equal amount of bridges survived. This interested engineers and they set about discovering why the bridges succeeded or failed and how we can improve current bridge designs. Using steel beams and concrete, a model of a bridge was constructed and secured in the flume tank. From there, the group is running waves towards the bridge and looking at a variety of things. One of the things that they're looking at are the forces occurring at each girder connection in order to determine the load path that goes through the body of the bridge and into the foundation of the bridge. Another thing they're looking at is what happens to air that gets stuck underneath the bridge and how it affects the load distribution throughout the bridge. Once all of the research and testing is done, the data collected will be used to improve bridge structures as well as to update and modify computer models that are being used.
The second tank in the lab is called the basin tank. This tank is 160 feet long, 7 feet deep, and 87 feet long. It can generate not only tsunami waves but also wind waves and multi-directional waves (which makes it a 3-D wave generator). The basin is most often used for projects that look at tsunami inundation and impact, wave energy conversion devices, and harbors and ports. However, due to the large concrete beach, it can also be used to test scaled down models of cities. A really neat fact about the basin tank is that it is one of the largest tanks in the world that is available to rent. We've had several different research groups and colleges come to the wave lab to test their projects. We also sometimes have schools come in as outreach projects. The schools take a tour of the lab, learn about coastal engineering a little more in-depth, and then get to make their own models of tsunami-proof buildings. We then take their models and put then in the tank where tsunami waves are run. This competition tends to be a lot of fun for the kids and they really learn a lot about coastal engineering and tsunamis through the activity.
One of the tanks is 342 feet long (that's longer than a football field), 15 feet deep, and 12 feet high. This tank is called the flume tank and it's one of the largest pieces of testing equipment in the U.S. The flume tank can generate waves that travel up to 4 m/s and up to 5 feet in height. Waves are generate by a single paddle moving back and forth repeatedly. Some really neat things about the flume tank are that it is a 2-D wave generator (we can control the speed and the height of the wave), it was built in 1973 and is still completely operational and in good shape, and it takes 300,000 gallons of water to fill the tank to 9 feet deep. .
Right now there is a research project going on that is being worked on by students from the University of Nevada, students from Oregon State University, and the Federal Highway Administration. They're project was motivated by the 2011 Japan tsunami and how the bridges in Japan were affected. While it was calculated that more than 150 bridges were damaged or swept away, an equal amount of bridges survived. This interested engineers and they set about discovering why the bridges succeeded or failed and how we can improve current bridge designs. Using steel beams and concrete, a model of a bridge was constructed and secured in the flume tank. From there, the group is running waves towards the bridge and looking at a variety of things. One of the things that they're looking at are the forces occurring at each girder connection in order to determine the load path that goes through the body of the bridge and into the foundation of the bridge. Another thing they're looking at is what happens to air that gets stuck underneath the bridge and how it affects the load distribution throughout the bridge. Once all of the research and testing is done, the data collected will be used to improve bridge structures as well as to update and modify computer models that are being used.
The second tank in the lab is called the basin tank. This tank is 160 feet long, 7 feet deep, and 87 feet long. It can generate not only tsunami waves but also wind waves and multi-directional waves (which makes it a 3-D wave generator). The basin is most often used for projects that look at tsunami inundation and impact, wave energy conversion devices, and harbors and ports. However, due to the large concrete beach, it can also be used to test scaled down models of cities. A really neat fact about the basin tank is that it is one of the largest tanks in the world that is available to rent. We've had several different research groups and colleges come to the wave lab to test their projects. We also sometimes have schools come in as outreach projects. The schools take a tour of the lab, learn about coastal engineering a little more in-depth, and then get to make their own models of tsunami-proof buildings. We then take their models and put then in the tank where tsunami waves are run. This competition tends to be a lot of fun for the kids and they really learn a lot about coastal engineering and tsunamis through the activity.