Sirawit Shimpalee
Pronouns: he/him/his
Research Mentor(s): Jeremy Bricker
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering / Engineering
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 1 – 10am – 10:50am
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Sirawit Shimpalee, Jeremy Bricker
Presenter: 59
Abstract
Breakwaters and seawalls are structures that are designed to protect coastlines against violent marine environments. However, such structures can fail due to a lack of air intake in the cavity behind the structure, causing a pressure difference that results in an additional net force on the structure overall. In this investigation, fluid overflow over a caisson box was observed in an open channel flume. The purpose of this research was to determine the forces acting on the box due to the pressure differences. The null hypothesis of this work was that the only forces acting on the caisson for all aeration states would be hydrostatic forces. For this work, sensors were placed inside the caisson to measure the external pressures, which were then plotted in relation to the aeration of the cavity. The forces acting on the box due to pressure differences were then calculated, and it was determined that the forces from the pressure differences within the air cavity reduced the downstream force by an average of 4.0313 N, with the percent difference between the forces ranging from 4.515% to 14.576%. Thus, this additional force had the potential to cause the failure of a breakwater. Future work will consist of using a conductivity probe to measure the density of the tailwater in order to corroborate the trends from the overflow test, as well as modifying the tailwater depth and flow rate in order to determine the factor that is most significant on the rearward forces.
Engineering, Interdisciplinary
