Abstract
Field survey results from recent tsunamis have substantiated numerous anecdotal reports over the past ten years of substantial differences between the runup predictions of numerical models and field measurements. These differences have led to speculations on whether these differences are due to poor seismological inferences about the tsunami source motions or whether they are due to poor performance of the hydrodynamic models. In an effort to resolve this ambiguity, this study was undertaken to produce a high-quality laboratory data set with physically relevant idealized tsunami conditions both to understand the phenomenology of three-dimensional tsunami runup and to make data available for validating numerical models.
This paper presents laboratory data from the first stage of this investigation, involving the study of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) long wave runup in a laboratory channel and a large wave basin. Capacitance type wave gages and a laser Doppler velocimeter were used to measure evolution, uniformity, runup, and wave kinematics. Solitary waves, with height to depth ratios ranging from 0.01 to 0.36, were generated in a depth of 32 cm for progression onto a 1:30 plane beach. In the basin tests, source length, normalized by the depth with values from 4 to 86, and eccentricity of the source with respect to the plane beach were varied. Based on a preliminary data analysis, it is concluded that the runup height normalized with the offshore depth increases almost linearly with the normalized source length, at least for nearshore generation. Also, under identical initial conditions, runup heights in a flume are higher than in a basin.
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Briggs, M.J., Synolakis, C.E., Harkins, G.S., Hughes, S.T. (1995). Large Scale Three-Dimensional Laboratory Measurements of Tsunami Inundation. In: Tsuchiya, Y., Shuto, N. (eds) Tsunami: Progress in Prediction, Disaster Prevention and Warning. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8565-1_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8565-1_9
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