The mixed sand and gravel barrier beaches located on the South Island's East Coast are formed predominantly of Greywacke, eroded from the mountains, and transported via the major river systems. These barriers act as the interface between the South Pacific Ocean and the surrounding hinterland. In times of high energy coastal events, breaching is common. This thesis examines the form and function of the Waihao-Wainono barrier, a section of the coastline situated north of the Waitaki River. Breaches along this part of the barrier are frequent and several have rendered the surrounding farmland unusable for several years due to the effects of saltwater inundation. There is some concern among the local community as to exactly why the barrier breaches at certain locations and not others, making land planning and management a difficult task for farmers. Several of the local landowners believe that since the construction of the Waitaki Dam in 1935, a significant decrease in sediment size along the barrier has occurred. It is also thought that the barrier form has experienced substantial change. Through the use of physical techniques used in the field of coastal science, 17 sites along the Waihao-Wainono barrier were studied. Excavations were carried out, surface and substrate profiles recorded and sediment samples collected from the surface. sub-surface and substrate of the barrier. Analysis of the barrier form and barrier volume concluded that the past breach sites consisted of steeper lower foreshore slopes than the non-breach sites, and at two sites, the substrate was not reached. Breach areas display the greatest barrier volume of all the study sites, which is contrary to belief. In relation to the surface sediments, the majority of barrier profiles displayed the distinct mean grain size cross shore zonation, characteristic of mixed sand and gravel beaches. The best and most consistent surface sorting was also identified as being a characteristic of the breach sites. The sediment size is not shown to have drastically reduced over the thirty year sampling period as was perceived by the local community. Within the sub-surface of the barrier, the sediments displayed chaotic sizes and generally poorly sorted material. Several of the breach sites contained a distinct change in sediment size between the coarser surface layer and the finer layer located immediately below. This layering of coarse and fine sized sediments leads to differences in permeability within the barrier, which is thought to be a major factor in why these sites have breached. Resulting from these findings, a group of characteristics of breach sites was formed and several predictions made as to where the barrier may breach in the near future.

The mixed sand and gravel barrier beaches located on the South Island's East Coast are formed predominantly of Greywacke, eroded from the mountains, and transported via the major river systems. These barriers act as the interface between the South Pacific Ocean and the surrounding hinterland. In times of high energy coastal events, breaching is common. This thesis examines the form and function of the Waihao-Wainono barrier, a section of the coastline situated north of the Waitaki River. Breaches along this part of the barrier are frequent and several have rendered the surrounding farmland unusable for several years due to the effects of saltwater inundation. There is some concern among the local community as to exactly why the barrier breaches at certain locations and not others, making land planning and management a difficult task for farmers. Several of the local landowners believe that since the construction of the Waitaki Dam in 1935, a significant decrease in sediment size along the barrier has occurred. It is also thought that the barrier form has experienced substantial change. Through the use of physical techniques used in the field of coastal science, 17 sites along the Waihao-Wainono barrier were studied. Excavations were carried out, surface and substrate profiles recorded and sediment samples collected from the surface. sub-surface and substrate of the barrier. Analysis of the barrier form and barrier volume concluded that the past breach sites consisted of steeper lower foreshore slopes than the non-breach sites, and at two sites, the substrate was not reached. Breach areas display the greatest barrier volume of all the study sites, which is contrary to belief. In relation to the surface sediments, the majority of barrier profiles displayed the distinct mean grain size cross shore zonation, characteristic of mixed sand and gravel beaches. The best and most consistent surface sorting was also identified as being a characteristic of the breach sites. The sediment size is not shown to have drastically reduced over the thirty year sampling period as was perceived by the local community. Within the sub-surface of the barrier, the sediments displayed chaotic sizes and generally poorly sorted material. Several of the breach sites contained a distinct change in sediment size between the coarser surface layer and the finer layer located immediately below. This layering of coarse and fine sized sediments leads to differences in permeability within the barrier, which is thought to be a major factor in why these sites have breached. Resulting from these findings, a group of characteristics of breach sites was formed and several predictions made as to where the barrier may breach in the near future.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:36:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcus Antonio Vale.pdf: 14954412 bytes, checksum: 3b3a2b0489271f2cd612006f585d47b6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-06 / There are few manufacturing industries whose products covers such wide ranges in sizes, weight and complexity as the foundry industry. Smaller castings can be as small as a grain of rice and weight a fraction of gram, while the largest can reach hundreds of tons and be as big as a house. There is a wide range of metal casting processes, characterized mainly by the allow type and its pouring process and also by the mold type and its associated manufacturing process. In the particular case of molds, there are molds produced using sand bonded by chemical processes, or better, bonded by synthetic resin, which can be different in type and specific chemical composition. The resins developed for the automotive market has led to major changes in the manufacturing method of foundry molds. The polymerization of these resins and a subsequent curing are used to connect to the foundry sand in a rigid structure capable of receiving and holding liquid metal. Therefore, it is of fundamental importance to know the process of polymerization of these resins and their impact on the final properties of the obtained molds, especially in the mechanical characteristics. With respect to the sand-resin mixture (sand prepared), important factors are: the range of bench life time (gel time) which must be long enough to enable the manufacture of the mold, and cure speed should be fast enough to permit rapid rotation of the casting tooling and hence greater productivity. The bench life time interval is the maximum time (gel time) than the sand-resin mixture can be handled before starting the vitrification reaction of the resin (crosslinking chains), the extraction time is the time required for mold achieve an adequate minimum hardness to handling. The mixed sand life time is the maximum interval which the mixed sand can be handling before the polymerization of the resin used as bonding takes place. The hardening rate is the interval needed for the mold becomes hard enough to be handled. In this work was studied yhe influence of the addition of zinc chloride (in solution) in the sandfuran resin mixture, with the aim of reducing the relation between the extraction time intervals and time bench life. The results showed that addition of percentages of the order of 5.0% to 7.5% zinc chloride reduces this ratio between 10% and 17%; this means that the casting model may be extracted from the sand mass in a smaller time interval increasing the productivity of manufacturing molds. It was also observed that there was also an increase of about 9% to 18% in bench life intervals. / Poucos são os setores industriais de manufatura cujos produtos cobrem faixas tão amplas de tamanhos, peso e complexidade como o setor industrial de fundição. As menores peças fundidas podem ser tão pequenas quanto um grão de arroz e pesar uma fração de grama, enquanto as maiores podem atingir centenas de toneladas e ser tão grandes quanto uma casa. Existe uma gama considerável de processos de fundição, caracterizados principalmente pelo tipo de liga e seu processo de vazamento, pelo tipo de molde, e seu respectivo processo de fabricação. No caso específico dos moldes, têm-se moldes fabricados com areias aglomeradas por processos químicos, ou melhor, aglomerados com resinas sintéticas que podem ser de diferentes tipos e com composição química específica. As resinas desenvolvidas para o mercado automotivo deu origem a grandes mudanças na metodologia de fabricação dos moldes de fundição. A polimerização destas resinas e sua subsequente cura são usados para ligar à areia de fundição em uma rígida estrutura capaz de receber e manter metal líquido. Portanto, é de fundamental importância conhecer o processo de polimerização destas resinas e seu impacto nas propriedades finais dos moldes obtidos, principalmente nas características mecânicas. Com relação à mistura areia-resina (areia preparada), os fatores importantes são o intervalo de tempo de vida de banca (tempo de gelificação) que deve ser suficientemente longo para possibilitar a confecção do molde, e a velocidade de cura (vitrificação) que deve ser rápida suficiente para permitir a rápida rotatividade dos ferramentais de fundição e consequentemente uma maior produtividade. O intervalo de tempo de vida de banca é o tempo máximo (tempo de gelificação) que a mistura areia-resina pode ser manuseada antes de iniciar a reação de vitrificação da resina (reticulação das cadeias), o tempo de extração é o tempo necessário para o molde atingir uma dureza mínima adequada ao seu manuseio. Neste trabalho foi estudada a influência da adição de cloreto de zinco (em solução) na mistura areia-resina furânica, com o objetivo de reduzir a relação entre os intervalos de tempo de extração e tempo de vida de banca. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que percentuais de adição da ordem de 5,0% a 7,5% de cloreto de zinco reduzem esta relação entre 10% e 17%; o que significa que o modelo de fundição poderá ser extraído da massa de areia em um menor intervalo de tempo aumentando a produtividade de fabricação de moldes. Observou-se ainda que houve também um aumento da ordem de 9% a 18% nos intervalos de vida de banca.