Tsunami Modeling, Fluid Load Simulation, and Validation Using Geospatial Field Data

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated, interdisciplinary methodology incorporating multiphysics, multiscale numerical modeling and simulation from tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation to subsequent coupled structural response and associated fluid loads. This novel, cohesive approach performs these simulations across a large spectrum of scales, enabling structural engineers to take full advantage of the detail available in recent advances in tsunami modeling, geospatial data collection, and computational structural mechanics. Extensive seismic networks, geodetic instruments, and water-level stations provide unprecedented data sets, enabling one to model, simulate and reconstruct tsunami events with high fidelity. A number of coordinated, ground-based surveys also collect valuable, time-sensitive quantitative information to improve understanding of structural response to tsunami loading following events. Recently, some of these surveys include high-resolution LIDAR measurements, which provide critical geospatial information to link field observations, topographic mapping, and structural performance to create and validate numerical models, enabling quantification and understanding of structural response and failure modes resulting from tsunami forces. The presented methodology is demonstrated through a case study of a building component which structurally survived the 2011 Tohoku tsunami.