Experimental Study on Embankment Reinforcement by Steel Sheet Pile Structure Against Tsunami Overflow

Abstract

This study proposes a new embankment reinforcement using steel sheet piles against tsunami overflow, which has been known as the main cause of the failures of the embankments by the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami. Effectiveness of the proposed technique was discussed through a hydraulic experiment. A model of embankment was set in a horizontal open channel, and one or two steel plates are installed into the embankment from the top as vertical walls inside. Temporal variations of the shapes of the embankment and the sheet pile structures were obtained from video images. In most of the cases, the sheet pile structures started to rotate after the erosion of the landward slope of the embankment. However the rotation stopped at about 30° and 10° from the initial location with the single- and double-wall cases. Height of the embankment after overflow was less than 20% with no reinforcement, while more than 70% and 95% of the height were kept with the single- and double-wall structures, respectively. The performance of the embankment with the reinforcement was also discussed in terms of tsunami energy reduction with an additional fixed-bed experiment.