AIR WAVE Artificial reef.

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming started the topic in Thursday, 16 Oct 2014 at 8:04am

Saw this on another website with a link to this, nothing to do with me just sharing and im not donating any money but interesting concept, ive actually had the same idea before, but in all honesty i don't think it will work.

If pumped with air to hard to anchor to bottom, especially with wave movement.

If pumped with water, becomes neutral still needs to be held to bottom, still very hard to do.

If pumped with sand, IMO best bet, but need a lot of surrounding sand to be pumped so more expensive and people in most areas will have environmental concerns, then also need very strong bags, and just like the narrow neck spit reef, can break open, or sink if not sitting on solid bottom.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2050416678/surfing-airwave-inflatab...

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Thursday, 23 Oct 2014 at 11:06pm

Is he referring and implying that the bubble will create well shaped reform peaks?
If so you would have to get the distance from shore correct.

If he is saying that the bubble will create good shaped banks from those i dont know about that, it might but if you look at piers and a lot of islands, some have good banks inside, some have backwashy peaks and piers especially, all the sand gets washed out creating a deep bunker channel inside of it.
Which actually causes good waves either side of it not inside of it.

However i hope he gets the thing going, its a good idea and needs proper testing and good for him for having a go with something that might work. I hope it does.

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Thursday, 23 Oct 2014 at 11:22pm

Scratch what i said above, bad headache, i reckon it could work.
If like cronullas sand slug or many beachies inside outer shoals like B******bi, could be good shape on the beachies at least beats closeouts.

Could do with a better video though.

indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming's picture
indo-dreaming Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 7:15am

I still don't reckon it will work, mostly because even if you get the bottom shape correct which is just a gamble and a flip of the coin.

You still need to anchor it down and thats the hard part especially if you filling it with air, you would need so much mass of weight to anchor it down, which also need a solid bottom to sit on otherwise things such as concrete blocks would sink as water moves sand under them, anchors in the traditional boat style would need cables which could be dangerous and you would need many at different angles and they could also come unstuck.

I believe there proposing filling with air i don't think air will work, filling with water is more realistic it will still move if not anchored but easier to anchor, but could have problems with the water moving around causing problems.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 8:09am

Yeah, can't really see this idea taking off. As ID says, securing a bag full of air to the sea floor, often a sandy sea floor, is fraught with problems, leave alone the actual effort of getting it underwater. On the Kickstarter page he says, "I am committed to testing the installation over a two month period to figure out all these issues as they arise." I would've thought R&D and testing for things such as sand erosion, planting metal objects in the surf zone, and corrosion of all materials would take far longer than two months. Also, it'd have to be a huge air bag to have any effect. I can't see anywhere on the page that lists dimensions. 

Only $3,207 out of $100,000 pledged so far.

fitzroy-21's picture
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fitzroy-21 Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 8:17am

I'd like to know how he intends to keep the air stable under there also. It will always try to gather in the highest point like a parachute, which, as pointed out above, is going to test the anchoring and stability. I think the idea is there but the execution may be another issue.

carpetman's picture
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carpetman Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 9:31am

It sounds like a more expensive and complex version of those canvas sand groins they use in coastal engineering. Those things seem like the obvious solution to this problem. A big bag of canvas (or what ever it is) filled with sand & dropped in the ocean. Job done.

wellymon's picture
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wellymon Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 1:46pm

If you think of a ship with ballast tanks that can raise lower/tilt the ship in any which way, you can fill it with various substrates....?
Fitzy...!

The engineering of this system could be simple or really complicated and could involve a lot of money.
It is totally doable IMO.
You just have to look at the engineering with risers out on FPSO's oil and gas rigs.

Very interesting concept as I have thought of this before when working on the FPSO's, creating the system along a 250m port/starboard side on the ship, as well with the ship on heading control varying different degrees into any swell...As well as accommodation on board, bars on different levels, sound systems pumping, lovely ladies running around, oh stop it I could elaborate even ten fold ;)

50young's picture
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50young Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 3:23pm
stunet wrote:

Yeah, can't really see this idea taking off. As ID says, securing a bag full of air to the sea floor, often a sandy sea floor, is fraught with problems, leave alone the actual effort of getting it underwater. On the Kickstarter page he says, "I am committed to testing the installation over a two month period to figure out all these issues as they arise." I would've thought R&D and testing for things such as sand erosion, planting metal objects in the surf zone, and corrosion of all materials would take far longer than two months. Also, it'd have to be a huge air bag to have any effect. I can't see anywhere on the page that lists dimensions. 

Only $3,207 out of $100,000 pledged so far.

Video states 20m x 2m air bag Stu

carpetman's picture
carpetman's picture
carpetman Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 3:56pm

Looks like a few people have had the same idea Welly...

wellymon's picture
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wellymon Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 4:19pm

Love it Carpetman
That's even better, there's a beach with sand;)

wellymon's picture
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wellymon Friday, 24 Oct 2014 at 4:20pm

Well synthetic sand:(

aidandavies's picture
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aidandavies Saturday, 27 Dec 2014 at 10:12pm
carpetman wrote:

It sounds like a more expensive and complex version of those canvas sand groins they use in coastal engineering. Those things seem like the obvious solution to this problem. A big bag of canvas (or what ever it is) filled with sand & dropped in the ocean. Job done.

The concept should be (much?) cheaper to both manufacture and install CM -far lower labour and material costs.. the other appeal is the ability to remove should adverse enviro problems arise..

Engineering wise, the anchoring issues could be managed (although there is massive(!) buoyancy forces in an inflatable structure of that size)

any thoughts on using inflatable structures to create a 'sand slug' a-la cronulla sand dredging project?

I've not put too much thought into it yet, but I feel its an avenue worth pursuing?

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Sunday, 19 Aug 2018 at 6:44pm

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truebluebasher's picture
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truebluebasher Sunday, 19 Aug 2018 at 11:57pm

Lost! One Giant Sized Wave Frisbee...
Owner Huey says just return it on your local Backwash for Wave of the Day Reward.