Experimental simulation of tsunami surge and its interaction with coastal structure

Abstract

Following the tsunamis occurred in Japan (2011) and Indian Ocean (2004), investigating interaction between coastal structures and tsunamis became necessary. Although several attempts have been made to estimate the tsunami forces acting on the coastal structures, there still remain inconsistencies among the published design guidelines. This research includes an experimental study to investigate the interaction between a tsunami surge and a coastal structure. The tsunami surge was generated using a novel dam-break system, capable of generating higher tsunami surges than the previous simulations. The relations between surge velocity, surge depth, and surge-induced pressure on the structure were presented. In the surge-induced pressure–time histories, there were three identified force components, namely, run-up, impulsive and quasi-steady hydrodynamics. Furthermore, this research presents a comparison made between the experimental results and existing tsunami guidelines. The ratio of impulsive force to hydrodynamic force was found around 2.4 for each tsunami surge. The hydrodynamic forces were found to be higher with respect to those determined using the ‘Federal Emergency Management Agency’ FEMA P646 guidelines, whereas they were approximately in agreement with those obtained by FEMA 55. Moreover, the results showed that the ‘Structural Design Method of Building for Tsunami Resistance’ overestimates the impulsive force.

Dam-Break Waves’ Hydrodynamics on Composite Bathymetry

“…Following Chanson (2006) and Madsen et al (2008), dambreak waves are frequently used by a multitude of authors in the context of tsunami engineering: Derschum et al (2018), Khan et al (2000), , Stolle et al (2019), Stolle et al (2020b), Stolle et al (2020a), andvon Häfen et al (2021) used dam-break waves to study debris transport and debris-induced loadings, and Nistor et al (2017a), Nistor et al (2017b), Stolle et al (2016), andWüthrich et al (2020) used the vertical release method to investigate debris motion as well. Al-Faesly et al (2012), Arnason et al (2009), Aureli et al (2015), Cross (1967), Farahmandpour et al (2020), Moon et al (2019), Ramsden (1996), Shafiei et al (2016), Soares-Frazão andZech (2007), Soares-Frazão and Zech (2008), Winter Andrew et al (2021), and Xu et al (2020 used dam-break waves to investigate loads on structures like residential houses, breakwaters or idealized cities, and the associated flow regime. Kuswandi and Triatmadja (2019), Maqtan et al (2018), andTriatmadja et al (2011) used dam-break waves to investigate scouring around structures during tsunami inundations.…”

Design and Manufacturing of Small Scale Tsunami Simulator Channel

“…Experimental work was performed to study the relationship between an onshore building and a tsunami surge [4]. The study was carried out on one of the hydraulic laboratories, which consists of a tsunami simulator with 10 m long test channel, 2.1 meters wide, and 1.5 meters deep.…”