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MS Plan B Defense: Feasibility of Retrofitting Tinian Breakwater in CNMI
29 November 2023 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Zachary Niezgodski
Master’s Student
Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
**This defense will be held both in person (POST 723) and over Zoom**
Meeting ID: 917 8926 7508
Passcode: ZachMS
https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/91789267508
Since construction of the Tinian Harbor in 1945, there have only been minor repairs to the original facilities, resulting in many becoming damaged and degraded. Looking to the future, the U.S. Department of Defense, specifically the Department of the Navy, has plans to upgrade logistics capacity on Tinian for offload operations, and thus is most interested in projects that will improve the port facilities. This study focuses on a potential upgrade of the deteriorated breakwater at Tinian Harbor with a rubble mound type breakwater. Hindcast data and a watershed algorithm is used to partition the waves and the dominant bulk parameters such as significant wave height, peak period, and wave direction that will impact the harbor are extracted. Additionally, events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons are analyzed to produce an extreme event analysis. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Surface-water Modeling System is used to transform deepwater waves to shore. These wave conditions are used to develop a design for the new breakwater system that will help reduce wave action inside the harbor to acceptable levels. The final product is a complete preliminary (60%) design package, which will be turned over to decision makers within the U.S. Navy to decide whether or not to pursue final design.