Wednesday 23 March 2011

Tsunami Simulation model idea? with 3 edits!

EDIT 3
Driving in to work this morning I thought 'hang on John you're missing a trick here!' 'Why not get some cross links going with resistant materials/craft construction (technology) and build a model simulator!? I had in my mind the great meander simulator in my mind created by @tonycassidy and thought why not make a large scale version of the 'Bang goes the theory BBC tsunami model simulator built by Gem in the workshop' Make it large enough so that you can trace the waves for say 4-5 seconds in the model. I want it to create a stick slip fault using plastic under tension and then release off a catch. Naturally I dont want the plastic once slipped to break the surface of the water and divert waves generated in different directions as the crust in an earthquake out to sea wouldnt break the surface. Therefore it is going to have to be deep. The basin for the model I'd like to make out of perspex so that we can see under the water surface the scouring effect on the ocean floor. Going to fill it with sand at the slope end of the basin near the coast. This will let us see the effects on the beach at the coast once the tsunami wave reaches it. Then I want to trace the wave with students filming it from different angles from a cross section perspective, birds-eye view over head perspective then a panning view and from different angles watching the wave extend out over land.
Perhaps have objects in the way once out of the basin and see how far the waters power extends to cause damage.
Now to go and chat to the technology department and see what they think!

Hmmm thinking of taking a bath tub into school and simulating a tsunami wave once its broken the sea defences (bath tub). The aim is to work out the velocity by filming how long it takes the wave (created by beginning a shockwave/push, using a slip flick by giving plastic a tension fold and releasing it) to travel from one end of the bath to the other. The slip will push the water to the sloping end of the bath to simulate a wave rising up the coastal slope to the shoreline (lip of the bath). Then working out the distance travelled from the wave/water once it leaves the bath (ocean basin). We can adjust the landscape once the water leaves the bath by adding slopes to the land to simulate the changes. The aim is to see the extend water will reach in relation to the velocity it reaches in the bath once it hits friction of the land.
I'll get students to film on their mobiles and the digital camera from different angles to create a 3D reconstruction. To see if the waves water rises up the slope when the velocity decreases rising up the slope of the bath.
That is the aim:) watch this space in the future:)


@cornish_james suggestion is a great one! Use a dingy to simulate the basin and on the coastal slope to the shore line use sand to build a sand bank. This will hopefully then recreate the scouring away of the coastal slope by the tsunami. This could then aid seeing the effects this has on the 2nd wave!

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