Soonbo Yang

Burrowing Criteria and Burrowing Mode Adjustment in Bivalves to Varying Geoenvironmental Conditions in Intertidal Flats and Beaches

The response of bivalves to their abiotic environment has been widely studied in relation to hydroenvironmental conditions, sediment types and sediment grain sizes. However, the possible role of varying geoenvironmental conditions in their habitats remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the hardness of the surficial intertidal sediments varies by a factor of 20–50 due to suction development and suction-induced void state changes in the essentially saturated states of intertidal flats and beaches. We investigated the response of two species of bivalves, Ruditapes philippinarum and Donax semigranosus, in the laboratory by simulating such prevailing geoenvironmental conditions in the field. The experimental results demonstrate that the bivalve responses depended strongly on the varying geoenvironmental conditions. Notably, both bivalves consistently shifted their burrowing modes, reducing the burrowing angle and burial depth, in response to increasing hardness, to compensate for the excessive energy required for burrowing, as explained by a proposed conceptual model. This burrowing mode adjustment was accompanied by two burrowing criteria below or above which the bivalves accomplished vertical burrowing or failed to burrow, respectively. The suitable and fatal conditions differed markedly with species and shell lengths. The acute sensitivities of the observed bivalve responses to geoenvironmental changes revealed two distinctive mechanisms accounting for the adult–juvenile spatial distributions of Ruditapes philippinarum and the behavioral adaptation to a rapidly changing geoenvironment of Donax semigranosus. The present results may provide a rational basis by which to understand the ensuing, and to predict future, bivalve responses to geoenvironmental changes in intertidal zones.

Comparison Study on the Residual Excess Pore Water Pressure Observed in seabed

The interaction among wave, seabed and marine structure is an important issue in coastal engineering as well as geotechnical engineering. Understanding variations of stresses and pore water pressures generated in seabed induced by waves is important for civil engineers who have to design the foundation for various marine structures and verify the instability of seabed. In the matters on seabed instability, particularly, in the case of wave-induced liquefaction of seabed, it is turned out there are two different mechanisms through previous studies. These are caused by the transient or oscillatory nature and the residual or progressive nature of excess pore water pressure generated in seabed, respectively. In this study, it is analyzed dynamic characteristics of soils sampled in seabed around the port of Kochi, Japan, through the dynamic triaxial tests and the residual excess pore water pressure in the seabed induced by seepage force of wave. In addition, the calculated residual excess pore water pressures were compared with the field data observed in the port of Kochi.

The Boundary Element Analysis of Wave Force acting on Multiple Cylinders

In this paper, the boundary element method is applied to solve the diffraction of waves by multiple vertical cylinders under the assumption of linear wave theory. A numerical analysis by boundary element method is based on Greens theorem and introduced to an integral equation for the fluid velocity potential around the cylinders. The numerical results obtained in this study are compared with the experimental data and the results of the theory using multiple scattering techniques. The comparisons show strong agreement. This numerical analysis method developed by using boundary element method could be used broadly for the design of various offshore structures to be constructed in coastal zones in the future.