engineering

North Breakwater Dome

North Breakwater Dome is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand North Breakwater Dome rather than just read about it. In short: The North Breakwater Dome (北防波堤ドーム, kita bōhatei dōmu) is a long arched "semi-domical" structure in the port area of Wakkanai, Hokkaidō, Japan. Rising to a height of 13.6 metres (45 ft) above the sea and extending some 427 metres (1,401 ft), with seventy columns, an intercolumniation of 6 metres (20 ft), and a width from column to wall of 8 metres (26 ft), the form, inspired by a Roman arcade, is said to be without…

Key takeaways

North Breakwater Dome belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect North Breakwater Dome to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of North Breakwater Dome from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The North Breakwater Dome (北防波堤ドーム, kita bōhatei dōmu) is a long arched "semi-domical" structure in the port area of Wakkanai, Hokkaidō, Japan. Rising to a height of 13.6 metres (45 ft) above the sea and extending some 427 metres (1,401 ft), with seventy columns, an intercolumniation of 6 metres (20 ft), and a width from column to wall of 8 metres (26 ft), the form, inspired by a Roman arcade, is said to be without parallel.

History In accordance with the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, South Sakhalin was incorporated into the Empire of Japan and governed as Karafuto Prefecture. To improve maritime connections between Wakkanai and Sakhalin, between 1910 and 1919 plans were laid for the redevelopment of the old fishing port of Wakkanai, with civil engineer Itō Chōemon (伊藤長右衛門) in charge. Measures included a 1,330 metres (4,360 ft) north breakwater to protect the port from windstorms and high waves, paired with a 545 metres (1,788 ft) sand groin to the south to enclose the port, together with land reclamation and the construction of moorings. Initial plans for the north breakwater were for its parapet to rise to a height of 5.5 metres (18 ft), but this was considered insufficient to withstand winter storms. A revised design was formulated by twenty-six year-old Tsuchiya Minoru (土谷実), a graduate of the Department of Civil Engineering at Hokkaidō Imperial University. Construction of the breakwater began in 1920, with works on the North Breakwater Dome carried out from 1931 and completed in 1936. The superstructure is supported by reinforced concrete piles on the inner side and rests on the reinforced concrete body of the breakwater facing the sea; it is topped with a parapet nearly 3 metres (9.8 ft) high.

The shipping route to Korsakov opened in 1923, that to Nevelsk the following year. From 1938 to 1945 there was a railway station in the Dome. With the end of the war and interruption of ties with Sakhalin, the station closed, and the Dome came to be used for coal storage. By the late 1960s the concrete of the Dome was deteriorating, with the volumetric expansion of the corroding steel used for reinforcement, after many cycles of freezing and thawing, and the action of salts. Reconstruction began in 1978 and was completed in 1981. In 2001, the North Breakwater Dome of Wakkanai Port was among the first assets to be listed as Hokkaidō Heritage.

See also List of Cultural Properties of Japan - structures (Hokkaidō) Cape Sōya

References

External links

North Breakwater Dome (in Japanese)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with North Breakwater Dome

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what North Breakwater Dome claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to North Breakwater Dome before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about North Breakwater Dome ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of North Breakwater Dome

In research: North Breakwater Dome appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses North Breakwater Dome in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: North Breakwater Dome is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1936 establishments in Japan, Breakwaters, Buildings and structures completed in 1936, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for North Breakwater Dome outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study North Breakwater Dome in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what North Breakwater Dome means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain North Breakwater Dome out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is North Breakwater Dome in simple terms?

Why does North Breakwater Dome matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study North Breakwater Dome?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on North Breakwater Dome.