GIKEN LTD. (Head Office: Kochi-shi, Kochi; President and CEO: Atsushi Ohira) donated a small Tsunami Simulator to The Hokkaido Education Research Institute. Established by the Hokkaido Government, the institute conducts research on education, provides training to education-related staff, and supplies teaching materials. The small Tsunami Simulator will be used for a wide range of activities, including one-day disaster-prevention workshops for primary and secondary school students, and activities to raise the local residents’ awareness about tsunamis.
Tsunami Simulator is a device that reproduces tsunamis in experiments, allowing people to experience the contrast between the tsunami-resistant performance of the Implant™ Levee advocated by GIKEN and that of existing levees.
In Hokkaido, there is fear of megaquakes occurring along the Japan and Chishima Trenches, and raising the disaster-prevention awareness of children and local residents has become an issue. Letting them understand the power of tsunamis and strength of levees with different structures through the use of Tsunami Simulator is also expected to help spread the technologies of GIKEN. Going forwards, besides disaster recovery work using press-in technologies and the redevelopment of infrastructure, GIKEN will also continue to focus on supporting safe, secure urban development in the regions.
Conducting an experiment at The Hokkaido Education Research Institute
■Overview of Small Tsunami Simulator
The simulator is portable and works by pushing water from a storage tank (15 l) towards a 1:200 scale model of a levee. It has a length of 1.5 m and a width of 35 cm. It generates tsunamis equivalent to those that would be 6 m to 7 m high in real life. The tsunami-resistant performance of two types of levees—a gravity type structure where a structure with a wide base is placed on the ground surface, and the Implant™ Structure using a continuous pile wall deeply embedded in the ground—can be understood at a glance. To allow the simulator to be used for experiments by children, the opening and closing of the storage tank for generating tsunamis are done by hand, and the placement of various types of levee models can also be easily carried out.
■Implant™ Levee
This is a levee that is built by driving highly rigid piles—such as sheet piles and tubular piles—into the ground continuously, forming a structure that is resilient against external forces such as earthquake-induced liquefaction, ground subsidence, and lateral soil flow as well as tsunamis. From a disaster-prevention perspective, the coasts of Iwate that suffered great damage in the Great East Japan Earthquake; the coasts of Kochi which calls for immediate preparation for the Nankai Trough earthquake; and many other parts of the country are adopting the Implant™ Levee.
■Background to Donation
In 2015, GIKEN carried out in-house development of Tsunami Simulator, which allows the verification of the tsunami-resistant performance of 1:33 scale levees. Located at Kochi Head Office, it was used for various types of experiments and demonstrations. The Hokkaido Education Research Institute learnt about this effort and approached GIKEN for advice about creating a small Tsunami Simulator, which led to this donation.
Tsunami Simulator located at Kochi Head Office
■Planned Use of the Small Tsunami Simulator
The simulator will be used as a teaching aid, such as during disaster-prevention workshops regarding the Japan and Chishima Trenches for local residents, one-day disaster-prevention workshops for primary and secondary school students, and science training courses for teachers.
■Experiment Conducted Using the Small Tsunami Simulator (Video)
■Profile of GIKEN Group
GIKEN developed the SILENT PILER™, the world’s first reaction-based, non-vibratory hydraulic pile driving machine that operates with minimal noise impacts. The GIKEN Group now actively promotes its press-in technology worldwide and contributes to the construction industry by proposing and implementing innovative solutions. The innovative press-in technology provides a unique solution and the adoption of this technology has spread to over 40 nations and regions.
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