Experimental study on the hydrodynamic impact of tsunami-like waves against impervious free-standing buildings

Abstract

Tsunamis, landslide-generated waves, and dam failures are rare, but highly destructive phenomena, associated with extreme loading on infrastructure. Recent events showed that specific measures must be taken to guarantee safety of both people and the built environment. This experimental study investigates the forces and moments exerted on free-standing buildings that are induced by both surges and bores. The hydrodynamic impact was characterized by high splash, subsequently followed by a quasi-steady flow around the structure. For dry bed surges, the time history of the horizontal force was proportional to the momentum flux per unit width. For wet bed bores, an attenuation of the peak force due to the presence of an aerated front was observed and the introduction of a reduction coefficient was necessary to achieve a realistic force estimation. Additional force analysis in terms of peak time, wave height at maximum force and impulse also pointed out some key differences between forces exerted by dry bed surges and wet bed bores. The occurrence of the maximum tilting moment on the building coincided with the maximum horizontal force and an evaluation of the cantilever arm was possible. These findings provide engineers with practical information for the design of safer coastal structures.

Experimental study on forces exerted on buildings with openings due to extreme hydrodynamic events

“…The hydrodynamic impact of bores and surges against free-standing impervious buildings was investigated experimentally by Cross (1967), Ramsden (1996), Asakura et al (2000), Arnason et al (2009), Nouri et al (2010), Foster et al (2017) and (Wüthrich et al, 2018a) among others. In addition, Nouri et al (2010) and Shafiei et al (2016) focused on the effect of building orientation on the resulting horizontal force.…”

Analytical prediction of the hydraulic jump detachment length in front of mounted obstacles in supercritical open-channel flows

“…and natural (hills, etc.) emerging obstacles (Lukkunaprasit et al, 2009 andWüthrich et al, 2018). All these obstacles can then be seen as impervious obstacles mounted on the bottom and emerging from the free-surface that the supercritical inflow must skirt it on the sides.…”

“…Mignot and Riviere (2010) additionally revealed the presence of a horseshoe vortex in the near bed region at the foot of the obstacle where the flow regime is subcritical. Recently, Wüthrich et al (2018) observed the transient transition between the wall jet and detached jumps around obstacles within transient flows reproducing tsunami waves.…”

Study on the Internal Force of Geomembrane of Landfill in Heavy Metal Contaminated Area

“…However, the anti-sliding stability of the Geomembrane and the cement = tan 1 . Generally speaking, the foundation medium under Geomembrane is clay cushion (Wüthrich et al, 2018). Assuming that its shear modulus is G and its thickness is D, the clay cushion can be used to estimate k s :…”