MRI: Acquisition of a Directional Random Wave Generator for the Coastal Engineering Laboratory Wave Basin

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract The College of Engineering and Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University is committed to Coastal Engineering as one of the research growth areas. The College completed a new Coastal Engineering Laboratory in September 2002 that contains a 22.8m by 36.6m by 1.5m deep wave basin, making it the largest wave basin at a US academic institution. This basin will be used for studying three areas: nearshore coastal processes, wave-structure interaction and coastal environmental dynamics.In the three-dimensional basin, a segmented, multidirectional random wavemaker will be designed, constructed, and installed to generate short and long period waves in a water depth up to 1.2 m. The wavemaker will have a stroke of approximately one meter, which is adequate to generate both short and long waves. Additionally, the equipment will be capable of creating solitons, directional waves and focusing and defocusing waves. Participation of remote users will be encouraged through teleobservation capabilities. The equipment will be used to study research issues of state and national significance as well as applied research addressing practical problems. Studies will include the effects of storm surges and ocean waves on human safety and infrastructure by studying areas of wave-structure interaction, wave hydrodynamics such as flooding and inundation, erosion and transport of sediments, scour, and debris flow. It will also be used to study the influence of waves and currents in the coastal zone on morphological evolution. Major sources of support for the operation and maintenance of the laboratory will be from State initiatives, national research grants and industry testing. Students at the graduate and undergraduate level will use the equipment. Groups from geography, oceanography and engineering will be using the equipment to integrate research with teaching. Each group of users will be given training commensurate with their intended use of the equipment. Some users will be merely observers of ongoing experiments and others, primarily of graduate MS and Ph.D. students, will actually be conducting experiments. Training for non-resident researchers will be provided to the specific users on a case-by-case basis through hands on training in the laboratory and via-web based instruction. The web-based instruction will use teleobservation capabilities in the laboratory. For many, the Laboratory and the three-dimensional equipment will serve as a learning opportunity to better understand wave and current dynamics and the processes causing the extensive damages of hurricanes and coastal storms. Our educational mission will include the integration of research and education from K-12 and undergraduate research through existing campus programs that will ensure the availability of the equipment to underrepresented groups.