Tsunami Bore Pressures and Forces Acting on Structures Surrounded by Weir

(1) Introduction Tsunami damages on structures that contain hazardous materials such as petroleum may cause an expansion of disaster over a wide coastal area, and also cause serious environmental problem due to the spread of contents (Goto, Yozo., 2009). Structures such as an oil storage tank are regulated to construct a weir around them in order to restrain the spread of contents spilled from them in ordinary times (DGSM., 2003). The weir sometimes produces quite complex flow, such as a wave runup and wave overtopping with large vortex, inside and round the weir under the tsunami inundation condition. Furthermore, this complex flow overtopping the weir may also produces specific hydraulic pressures and forces on structures inside the weir. A series of physical hydraulic experiments and three dimensional numerical simulations were conducted in this study in order to clear the characteristics of tsunami bore pressures and forces acting on structures surrounded by the weir. The effects of the weir on tsunami pressures and forces on structures are also discussed in this study. (2) Content of research As shown in Figure-1, an open channel was used to generate bore type tsunami by instantly pulling the division gate which separate the channel (h1=0.20m to 0.30m, h2=0.045m). The model scale was assumed 1/100, and a cylindrical structure with various diameter (D=0.04m, 0.08m and 0.11m) was installed on the dike. Wave forces and wave pressures were measured on different bore height conditions. As a weir, the circular wall with various diameter, D=0.26m(Type-A), D=0.22m(Type-B) and D=0.16m(Type-C), and various height, h=0.02m, 0.04m and 0.06m were tested in this study. In numerical simulation, CADMAS-SURF/3D was applied. Bore type tsunami was generated by applying water surface elevation and fluid velocity profile on the input boundary (Fukui et.al., 1962a). Figure-2 and Figure-3 show the profiles of water surface and pressure in case of Type-B. Both figures confirm good agreement between experimental results and numerical ones on the inundation area. Impulsive pressure profiles in Figure-3 seems blurred in this case, and the sustain pressures were recorded well in both experimental results and numerical ones. The distribution of sustain wave pressures in Figure-4 shows that the weirs reduced the pressure at bottom section, especially the smallest diameter of weir, i.e. Type-C. However in several cases, weir tended to increase the sustain pressure at the middle section of structure as seen in Figure-5. This study cleared that the higher weir tends to decrease pressure at the bottom section, on the contrary, it also increase the pressure at the upper section, because it increase wave surface elevation just in front of structure. Meanwhile, it was cleared that in case of the same weir height, the pressures on the cylinder become smaller on the configuration of smaller space between weir and cylinder due to the insufficient space for overtopping waves to act. The maximum sustain wave force with various impoundment water depth, h1, is shown at Figure-6. The effect of weir in reducing wave force can be clearly seen in the case of h1=0.20m, where small amount of inundated water overtopped the weir in this condition. The effect of weir in reducing wave force also can be seen in higher impoundment depth, h1=0.25m and h1=0.30m, though the reducing effect varied depending on the space between weir and structure. Higher forces are observed in TypeB because the overtopped flow hit structure directly, while the overtopped flow once hit the dike before acting on the structure in Type-A and the force becomes smaller. The limited space between weir and structure was the reason of lower forces on the Type-C. (3) Conclusions It is cleared that higher weir tends to reduce the pressure near the bottom section, while it increases the pressure on upper section of the structure due to the reason of increasing water surface elevation in front of structure. The pressures on the cylinder become smaller on the configuration of smaller space between weir and cylinder due to the insufficient space for overtopping waves to act. The existence of weir reduced sustains wave forces at the structure, though the reducing effect varied depending on the space between weir and structure. This study also showed that CADMAS-SURF/3D can be applied for the three dimensional flow condition with heavy wave overtopping. (4) References
[1] Goto, Yozo (2009), Tsunami Damage to Oil Storage Tanks. Aceh Tsunami Digital Repository, Issue date: 27-Oct-2009, URL : http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/539, access on 24-Jan-2011. [2] DGSM (2003), Spills Containment and Clean-up Measures for Dangerous Goods and Combustible Liquids. Dangerous Goods Safety Management Act 2001, Queensland Government Counter Disaster and Rescue Services, Brisbane [3] Fukui, Y. et. al (1962), Study of Tsunami -Investigation of Wave Velocities in case of Bore Type Tsunami-. Proc. of Coastal Engineering, JSCE, Vol. 9, pp.44-49. (in Japanese).

(5) Figures and Tables

W1

W2 0.4

Strain stress gauges Beam

h1

h2
0.0275

Z1 Z2 Z3 Z4 Dike Z1 Numerical
2

D
Pressure Gauges Circular protective weir

Z5

h D

h2 = 0.20m Numerical h2 = 0.25m Numerical h2 = 0.20m Experimental h2 = 0.25m Experimental

Figure-1. Experiment Setup (units Z Numerical in m)

Z3 Numerical Z4 Numerical Z5 Numerical Z1 Experimental Z2 Experimental Z3 Experimental Z4 Experimental Z5 Experimental

Figure-2. Wave surface profile of Type-B at W2 with D=0.08m and h=0.02m

No weir with D=0.04m Type-A with D=0.04m Type-B with D=0.04m Type-C with D=0.04m Straight seawall with h=0.05m

Figure-3. Wave pressure profiles of Type-B at front face of structure with D=0.08m, h=0.02m and h1=0.20m

Z1 Z2 Z3 Z4 Z5

No weir Type-B with h=0.02m Type-B with h=0.04m Type-B with h=0.06m

Z1 Z2 Z3 Z4 Z5

Figure-4. Distribution of maximum sustain wave pressure on various weir diameter with h=0.02m and h1=0.25m

Figure-5. Distribution of maximum sustain wave pressure on various weir height with D=0.04m and h1=0.30m

No weir with D=0.04m Type-A with D=0.04m Type-B with D=0.04m Type-C with D=0.04m

h1=0.20m

h1=0.25m

h1=0.30m

Figure-6. Maximum sustain wave force with h=0.02m