Surviving a Tsunami

This guy is equipped to survive a Tsunami!
Are you properly equipped?

https://youtu.be/xYiOO0qEve0

There is a person in my country who bought a lifeboat (the large ones from oil rigs) and put it in the yard, just in case.

I just bought an appartment and life on the 3rd and 4th floor...

I went to school in Rowlesburg WV and after the flood http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2197 when we would go through town about half of the houses still there had those little aluminum fishing boats in the back yard, it was funny to see all those bright silver boats lined up.

By far the best way to survive a tsunami is to get to high ground before it hits.

If you take a look at the "before" and "after" photos of the recent tsunamis in SE Asia and Japan, you soon realize that the only buildings likely to survive a big tsunami are really large, stoutly built and heavily reinforced steel and concrete structures. Any wood frame building, and even brick and masonry buildings are likely to be destroyed by a tsunami.

Likewise for boats, only larger very sturdy vessels are likely to survive intact. Tsunamis usually come as a series of waves. Often the later arriving waves are the biggest. If you look at any of the numerous videos of the recent tsunamis you will see that by the time the later waves arrive, the water is full of debris (all those destroyed houses and wood frame apartments), cars, and other junk. Smaller boats are likely to get chewed up and destroyed among all that debris.

If a tsunami is coming, run like hell to high ground. If there is no accessible high ground then run to the top of the biggest, stoutest building or other structure.

Just to be sure, I think that guy's boat will be intact for 30 seconds max in a Tsunami. He'd be better off buying a hot air balloon or a helicopter. It's like he's reinventing the wheel but starting with a square to see if it'll work out.

Why do you think that? Did you watch the video? I´m no engineer but to me it seem sturdy built. Rigid frame of boxes and double hull with foam filling in between.

I'm certainly no marine architect, but my big concern is the modular approach he used, sticking hull modules together one by one. Apparently only using epoxy to fasten them together.

IMO, this seems like each seam between modules would be a weak point (all along the seam) and would be where the up and down flex forces on the hull would concentrate. I think they are where leaks would start and propagate (along the seam) and possibly experience a catastrophic failure. If there was a full length keel tying the whole boat together, this might help, but I did not see one in the video.

A tsunami will subject the boat to fast moving debris like a stop sign, broken bicycles, trees parts, garden furniture, etc. The boat also has to withstand a hard impact against, for example, a building with rebar sticking out or the neighbor's wrought iron gate. This boat needs to survive all of that completely 100% of the time. I don't even believe my tiny waterproof flashlight could withstand that abuse.

AKSAR got it exactly right.

If you watch the video footage of the Japanese tsunami, you can see how destructive that ocean wave is. Small boats will be pulverized by all the debris. It's not simply water - it's all of the solid debris that is churning in the wave of the tsunami.

Nothing beats getting on top of a hill, or a sturdy building :-)

Pete

OK, that make good sence. I did not think of those seems between modules.

Ok, you make sence too.

lots of similar comments all over the internet about this thing

what i think? The frame will take the force of the waves (submarine) ... and when complete this kevlar covered bicycle helmet ... will probably survive a tsunami in lots of geographic locations, especially places that would consider this thing instead of concrete towers


tsunamiball faqs
the polyester kevlar thing Xynole
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3349 NEEShub - Resources: Impact Forces From Tsunami-Driven Debris
20k for 2 person metal ball? survival-capsule
1cm thick dyneema bag stops 20 meter tsunami

Those seams are probably covered by the plywood sheathing the outer hull. For that purpose plywood is very good. As has been mentioned though, impacts/punctures are very likely in a tsunami, particularly with a tsunami passing through suburbia. Hardening the outer hull with a layer of galvanized steel might help a lot.

As constructed it looks like it would have plenty of buoyancy. A boat would probably benefit from a keel and ballast, but a boat designed for blue water may have a rather long keel under the hull, a keel that would catch on "stuff" in a tsunami and how does that work when the water is less deep than the keel? It doesn't work..

Because of the dynamics and churning water of a tsunami, I'm not sure if even a short keel would help this design. This design may be intended to bob like a cork and will probably sit high in the water above all the turmoil below. Might work, might not, no way to really test it. A scale model for testing in a shallow tank might be beneficial.

Getting back to hardening the hull -- hardening the lower half of the hull may help it when making contact with hard pointy objects below the surface. The upper half stays light, the lower half benefits from more weight (think distributed ballast) and is reinforced from punctures.

All that said, the best way to ensure it survives a tsunami intact is to move it to high ground

You may have inadvertently stumbled onto something. A design like a buoy may be fundamentally a better approach for a watercraft during a tsunami. I just did a quick Internet search for buoys. There is not much to reinvent.

I don't see much use for the boat design in the original post. It's not like you'll be able to cruise around the city. There will be too many obstacles. Stuff will break the motor rather quickly, especially if the hull runs deep.