Comparison between Computed and Experimentally Generated Impulse Waves

Abstract

Large water waves caused by massive slide impacts are a potential hazard along waterways, coastal areas and Alpine regions. Experimental research has been conducted at the Swiss Laboratory of Hydraulics to assess the risk from landslide-generated impulse waves. Analogously, the Centro Elettrotecnico Sperimentale Italiano performed numerical simulations of initial landslide and consequent impulse wave propagation using two mathematical models based on the conservative shallow-water equations. This paper presents the experimental test results and numerical predictions of impulse waves in a flume for a range of stillwater depths, landslide volumes, and impact velocities at laboratory scale. The comparison between the measured and predicted wave free surface profiles generally produced corresponding wave heights, although the initial wave peak is too steep and arrives too early. Excluding spurious random effects, the relative differences between measured and numerically computed maximum wave heights ranged within