• ALGAE
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.289-301
• /
• 2016

Floating debris provides substrates for dispersal of organisms by ocean currents, including algae that thrive on plastics. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tohuku, Japan resulted in large amounts of debris carried by the North Pacific Current to North America from 2012 to 2016. In 2015-2016, the plastics in the debris bore a complex biota including pink algal crusts. One sample (JAW4874) was isolated into culture and a three-gene phylogeny (psbA, rbcL, and SSU) indicated it was an unknown member of the red algal class Stylonematophyceae. It is a small pulvinate crust of radiating, branched, uniseriate filaments with cells containing a single centrally suspended nucleus and a single purple to pink, multi-lobed, parietal plastid lacking a pyrenoid. Cells can be released as spores that attach and germinate to form straight filaments by transverse apical cell divisions, and subsequent longitudinal and oblique intercalary divisions produce masses of lateral branches. This alga is named Tsunamia transpacifica gen. nov. et sp. nov. Sequencing of additional samples of red algal crusts on plastics revealed another undescribed Stylonematophycean species, suggesting that these algae may be frequent on drift oceanic plastics.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.831-847
• /
• 2012

Impact from water-borne debris during tsunami and flood events pose a potential threat to structures. Debris impact forces specified by current codes and standards are based on rigid body dynamics, leading to forces that are dependent on total debris mass. However, shipping containers and other debris are unlikely to be rigid compared to the walls, columns and other structures that they impact. The application of a simple one-dimensional model to obtain impact force magnitude and duration, based on acoustic wave propagation in a flexible projectile, is explored. The focus herein is on in-air impact. Based on small-scale experiments, the applicability of the model to predict actual impact forces is investigated. The tests show that the force and duration are reasonably well represented by the simple model, but they also show how actual impact differs from the ideal model. A more detailed three-dimensional finite element model is also developed to understand more clearly the physical phenomena involved in the experimental tests. The tests and the FE results reveal important characteristics of actual impact, knowledge of which can be used to guide larger scale experiments and detailed modeling. The one-dimensional model is extended to consider water-driven debris as well. When fluid is used to propel the 1-D model, an estimate of the 'added mass' effect is possible. In this extended model the debris impact force depends on the wave propagation in the two media, and the conditions under which the fluid increases the impact force are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.590-595
• /
• 2020

In this study, the small-scale collision experiments using a pendulum principle were carried out to evaluate the safety of the reinforced concrete building selected as a tsunami evacuation building due to the collision of the waterborne debris represented by ships. The experimental parameters were set as impact velocity, mass and length of the drifted ship. In this paper, the maximum impact force, impact duration, impact waveform and restitution coefficient affecting building response were investigated in detail. As a result, the impact force waveforms were distributed as a triangle in most of the experimental results, but became closer to a trapezoid as the length of the collision specimen increased. This is the very important result in calculating the momentum (impact waveform area) affecting building response, Furthermore, the restitution coefficients were constant regardless of the impact velocity, but they varied depending on the mass and length of the waterborne debris. However, the restitution coefficient for the mass per unit length of the waterborne debris can be evaluated.