Numerical and experimental study on tsunami run-up and inundation influenced by macro roughness elements

Abstract

This research study considers long wave run-up experimentally and numerically. At first, an alternative methodology in long wave physical modeling is presented by means of a set of pipe pumps forcing the inflow of a controlled volume of water into a wave channel mimicking a tsunami-like wave shape that is consistently contained by a proportional plus integral plus derivative controller (PID) controller. Arbitrary wave lengths are persistently generated by means of the proposed methodology. First results are compared to tsunami data stemming from conventional experimental configurations with solitary waves as well as with recent numerical modeling results. Comparisons are thoroughly discussed and - in a second step - numerical simulations are accomplished taking the interaction of long wave run-up and macro-roughness elements into account. Four different experimental configurations of macro-roughness elements are carried out while spacing between elements and numbers of obstacle rows are alternated. A fundamental correlation analysis reveals that a correlation of the number of macro-roughness rows, effective area of flow cross section and a grouping factor of different element configurations exists in principle.