NEES: Instrumentation Acquisition for the Tsunami Wave Basin

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides funding for Oregon State University to purchase basic core instrumentation for the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) tsunami wave basin at Oregon State University that will be operated by NEES Consortium, Inc., as a national shared use facility during FY 2005 - FY 2014. This award provides funding for the necessary core instrumentation to address the major challenges in tsunami research outlined the 2003 National Research Council report entitled "Preventing Earthquake Disasters: The Grand Challenge in Earthquake Engineering Research - A Research Agenda for the Network for Earthquake Engineering." The instrumentation was selected with input from the tsunami research community and includes: a free surface probe array, an acoustic-doppler velocimeter array, a pressure transducer array, force measurement systems (one linear actuator, one 6DOF load cell, and one accelerometer), a mobile bed multiple-transducer array, lighting equipment, and additional data acquisition equipment. This instrumentation will enable researchers to develop three-dimensional, numerical simulation models of tsunami generation, propagation and coastal effects that are experimentally verified and, as needed, combined with selected real time tsunami data, e.g., researchers will be able to model the breaking waves as the tsunami approaches the shoreline, energy dissipation associated with boundary shear stresses and with wave breaking, run-up and run-down on the shore, wave-structure interaction, and sediment transport. The instrumentation will also be used for K-12 outreach through demonstrated laboratory activities using the tsunami wave basin's telepresence system. This award is funded by the NSF NEES Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) project and is a component of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP).