Study on the relationship between tsunami waves in dam break state and initial water levels

Abstract

Tsunami wave characteristics are greatly influenced by the initial water level when they attack structures. In this study, experimental and numerical investigations were conducted to investigated the relationship between tsunami wave characteristics and initial water levels. Results showed that, the wave height, wave velocity, and Froude number increase with the increase of tsunami wave intensity; the time history of water levels were influenced by the different initial water level conditions; the analytical solution proposed by Chanson (2005) may be extended to wet-bed conditions (for initial water level < 0.36 tsunami bore height in our experimental set-up). Due to the limitations of experimental ranges in the laboratory, the validated numerical model can provide more results for wider experimental ranges for tsunami bore investigations. It was observed from numerical results that, tsunami bore height increases with the increase of reservoir water level; tsunami bore velocity decreases with the increased initial water level on the bed; as the initial water level on the bed gradually increases, the mean tsunami bore Froude number shows a downward trend.