Physical Model Tests for Newly Developed Breakwater Foundation Subjected to Earthquake and Tsunami

Abstract

Many breakwaters damaged due to earthquake and tsunami in the past. For example, several breakwaters collapsed by the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunami. It was found that these breakwaters damaged mainly due to the failure of their foundations. Therefore, countermeasures are urgently needed to be developed for breakwater foundation in order to make the breakwater safe against earthquake and tsunami. Recently, new countermeasures were developed by the authors for breakwater foundation in order to make it resilient against an earthquake and tsunami. This paper deals with evaluation of effectiveness of the developed foundation model by conducting shaking table tests and tsunami overflow tests. As reinforcing countermeasures, steel sheet piles and gabions are provided in the breakwater foundation. To see the performance of the developed model, comparisons are made between the developed foundation model and conventional foundation. Through the tests, it was found that the reinforced foundation performed well in reducing damage of the breakwater caused by the earthquake and tsunami. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.