New ways to protect coasts from tsunami

MANGALURU: A group of faculty members from NITK Suratkal led by Dr Babloo Chaudhary, Assistant Prof, Department of Civil Engineering, is working on the development of new techniques to protect the Indian coasts from tsunami as  part of an R&D project sponsored by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. A press release stated that NITK has been awarded a research grant of `45 lakh. Prof  Katta Venkataramana and Dr G Sridhar are co-investigators.

They will develop new techniques for the breakwater of New Mangalore Port (NMP) which can make the breakwater resilient against tsunami-induced damage. The breakwater of NMP will be modeled (scaled down) in the laboratory; and tests will be conducted in the tsunami flume facility developed by the professor, which is the only one in the country.

The uniqueness of the flume is it can be used for earthquake motion. The performance of the existing breakwater under tsunami impact would be studied first. Later, the breakwater model will be made resilient by adding countermeasures.