Fudai is a small fishing village on the coast of Japan. In March of 2011, a tsunami hit the coast of Japan. It destroyed all of the villages, except Fudai. The secret of Fudai’s survival was their seawall. Unlike the other villages 10-meter seawalls, Fudai built a seawall that was 15-meters tall. Mayer Kotoko Wamura was the one who convinced the town to build it 15 meters high, even though it would cost the town more money and ruin their view of the water. Wamura died in 1997 before the tsunami even happened and everyone thought he was a fool for building it so high, until that wall saved them from the tsunami. When the tsunami in 2011 hit, it was caused by two tectonic plates that pushed against each other. Those plates were the Pacific Plate and Okhotsk Plate.  What happened was the Pacific Plate was subducted, or forced under, the Okhotsk Plate. This caused the Okhotsk Plate to snap upward, creating a force that pushed the water and made large waves. Those waves moved forward towards the coast and when the water became shallower, the waves climbed up the shore and continued to get bigger. Thus, creating a tsunami.

We were given a design challenge to create a prototype of a coastal barrier device that will protect the shoreline from a Tsunami. Our coastal barrier needed to be able to save the entire town, just like the seawall in Fudai. There were a few main requirements the coastal barrier had to have. The requirements were that it needed to stop or minimize water going over the wall, it had to deflect water from the shoreline, it had to withstand the force and weight of the waves, and it had to deflect or stop the wave of a maximum of 2 gallons of water during the testing stage. The only design constraint of our barrier was that it had to be made only out of 3D printed components and materials found in the classroom.  

When I was making my coastal barrier, I first started with a plain rectangular prism. I made my base shape by carving a curved shape out of side. After doing this, I increased the width and height and added in an extra slope at the top that would make the waves turn back towards the ocean. Later, my partners and I talked about the pros and cons of my design and we decided to make the top thicker because it might not be able to take the force of the waves if it were to thin. During this project, we learned about seawall economics. Working on the seawall economics worksheet is what challenged me most because I had a hard time finding the mass, price and percentages of the seawalls. I found that testing the mound barrier was the easiest part of the project for me. First, we made hills of sand and placed mini houses on top, we then built mound barriers on the sand and poured water on it to see how well it protect the houses. I found this easy because we were only testing the barriers and recording results, though I also found it enjoyable because it was hands on. If I were to do this project again, I would change the barrier type that I used. This time, I used the curved seawall. I am curious to see what the results would be if I used another type of barrier, such as the mound barrier or vertical seawall. 

Click here for an 3D view of my coastal barrier.