Seventh International Symposium on Scale Modeling (ISSM-7)
Hirosaki, Japan, Aug 6-9, 2013

Supercomputing and scale modeling the effect of flotsam mixedtsunami: Implication to tsunami generated by The 2011 Great East
Coast Earthquake
Jun Ishimoto a,*, Kozo Saito baInstitute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, 2-1-1, Katahira, Aoba-ku,
Sendai 980-8577, Japan*
E-mail address: ishimoto@alba.ifs.tohoku.ac.jpbIR4TD, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kentucky, 179 RGAN Building,
Lexington, KY 40506-0503, USA
Abstract
The behavior of flotsam mixed tsunami is investigated by a new type of integrated supercomputation using ALE method (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian Method) and SPH method(Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method). The fully hydrodynamic governing equations
without shallow-water theory were used to calculate tsunami characteristics of water flow withflotsam and debris. Our ALE model predicted the effect of fluid-solid coupled interaction in alimited region, and the model predictions were favorably compared with the scale modeling
analysis. This study, our first attempt to simulate the degree of damage caused by the flotsam
mixed tsunami, can help optimize the strength of seashore buildings and structures against future
tsunami threats. This study also can help estimate structural damage that can be caused by largescale natural disasters like hurricanes, storms and tornados, and help to develop effective
mitigation tools and systems.

Introduction
A recent numerical study of tsunami simulation conducted by oceanic scientists predicteddamage in a relatively large, approximately several 100km square area [1-3]. Their model usedsome assumptions including the shallow-water theory [4-7]. This model may be acceptable toestimate the relative degree of damage over a relatively large area [3-5]. In the shallow-water
approximation the vertical velocity profile is assumed to be uniform, however, it has limitations
to accurately estimate the impact forces on specific structures and land locations where thevertical velocity profile of water flow is important.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake (The Great East Coast Earthquake) hit off the Sendai coast area inJapan, March 11, 2011 and created a huge tsunami which claimed more than 20,000 lives. Thishigh casualty number was partly caused by the enhanced destructive forces of the tsunami that
contained floating debris and flotsam. This mixed effect of water and floating debris has not been
accurately estimated by any currently existing conventional tsunami simulation models because
they only estimate the impact force of single-phase water. Our current model clearly showedthat the destructive force was significantly enhanced by the leading wave and the outflow offlotsam as compared to a normal tsunami without floating debris and flotsams. To that end, wecreated a fully hydrodynamic approach model without shallow-water approximation to computethe flow characteristics of the mixed tsunami accompanied with flotsam and debris. In addition,
we calculated the impact forces of the mixed tsunami acting on structures by the leading wave
and the outflow by backwash of the flotsam against an ideal geometric structure placement.
We are focusing on a relatively limited region to be analyzed, such as power plants and industrial
plants, taking into account the interaction of the structure and the tsunami, fracture behavior andstructural deformation. We are also developing a simultaneous simulation method for the flotsam
mixed tsunami behavior of its interface causing deformation when in collision with structures. In
addition, the scale modeling analysis for flotsam mixed tsunami is conducted and compared withnumerical results.
Coupled computation (ALE-FEM) of tsunami-vehicle drifting behavior
For the first computation, the ALE method (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian Method) [8] inapplication to the tsunami simulation with the FEM vehicle model for hydraulic collision
analysis was used. Figure 1 shows the schematic of computational model and vehicle FEM
model. In the present computation, the Euler element is applied to analyze the hydrodynamic
behavior of the tsunami getting over the breakwater, and FEM vehicle model is applied toanalyze the collision behavior between vehicles and tsunami or between two vehicles. For thenumerical condition, the height of the breakwater was 2.0 m and the initial velocity of tsunami
was 5.0 m/s.
The FEM model of the vehicles can tolerate collision analysis. A rigid body model is assumed
for shortening the computational time. For small and large vehicles, a GEO Metro (15,000
Elements) and Chevrolet C1500 (10,000 Elements) were assumed to model the FEM objects.
Figure 2 shows the computational result of the tsunami behavior getting over the breakwater, andits attacking behavior of the two vehicles. The hydrodynamic impact behavior of the tsunami on
the vehicles is reasonable simulated by the drifting behavior of the vehicles. It was found that the(a) Computational domain(b) Two vehicles FEM modelFig. 1. Schematic of computational model and used vehicle FEM model.

Fig. 2. Computational results of the tsunami behavior getting over the breakwater, and its
attacking behavior on two vehicles.
vehicles were covered by tsunami and were washed by the tsunami’s inertia.
The lumber mixed tsunami’s hydrodynamic impact behavior for a water gate
Next, the effect of flotsam mixing on the impact force of the tsunami was numerically predicted.
In the present computation, the lumber mixed tsunami’s hydrodynamic impact behavior for awater gate was performed. Figure 3 shows the computational geometry for lumber mixedtsunami impacting a water gate, and the specifications of computational model items including
the initial numerical conditions. For the dynamic material characteristics, it was assumed that theconcrete section had a rigid body and the water gate had an elastic-plastic body.
Figure 4 shows the numerical results of the lumber mixed tsunami’s hydrodynamic impact
behavior on the water gate. The computation was performed with lumber and without lumber

Specifications for numerical model• Tsunami: Euler element（260,288 elements）• Water gate and prop： Lagrange element（22,728 elements）[Concrete section：Rigid
body, Water gate： Elastic-plastic body]• Flotsam: Lagrange elements（Rigid body,Specific weight: 0.9, Total mass 1.1 ton）
（1,260 el elements）• Initial velocity of tsunami: 3.0 m/s• Size of water gate: width: 5.0 m, height: 2.5m

Fig. 3. Computational geometry for lumber mixed tsunami impacting a water gate.

Fig. 4. Lumber mixed tsunami’s hydrodynamic impact behavior on the water gate.
160
140
120
100
Force (kN)With lumber(Mixed tsunami)

The impact force
increased to as twice

80
60

Without lumber(Single-phase)

40
20
0
-0.15

0.05

0.25

0.45

0.65
0.85
Time(sec)

1.05

1.25

1.45

1.65

Fig. 5. Effect of flotsam (lumber) mixing with tsunami on impact force for the watergate.

to study differences of tsunami impact behaviors. In Figure 4, the color contours in the watergate represent different magnitudes of stress. Interestingly, the change in flexibility and impact
stress of the water gate by the impact of lumber mixed tsunami was numerically reproduced.
Figure 5 shows the effect of flotsam (lumber) in the tsunami on the impact force to the water gate.
It was found that the impact force of lumber mixed with a tsunami was two times greater thanthat of single phase tsunami (without flotsam case).
Computation of a flotsam mixed tsunami behavior by SPH (Smoothed Particle
Hydrodynamics) method
In the final computation, we constructed the SPH method [9] to investigate the interaction
between a tsunami and structures, and also to investigate the damage of a flotsam mixed tsunami
on land structures. For the numerical modeling, we assumed the following mixed tsunami flow
conditions.
•

A flotsam or obstacle was carried away by the backwash of the first wave of the tsunami,
and then pushed by a second wave of the tsunami.

•

The flotsam went onto the shore and collided with the land structure.

SPH element：943,950
Total nodes： 316,400

Water column:
6.7m x 12m x 20m
Rigid body or
Elastic-plastic body model

Rigid body model
Small cylindrical tank (obstacle orflotsam, oil inclusion):
4.0m dia. x 4.0m height

Large cylindrical tank (landstructure):
8.0m dia. x 8.0m height

Slope

Fig. 6. Computational geometry for small tank mixed tsunami impacting a land structure.

To analyze these phenomena, we used the computational geometry which demonstrates two
small tanks impacting a large tank, as shown in Fig. 6. The tsunami wave was assumed to break
down within collapsing rectangular water column as it collided with the small tank and began tomove the small tank because of the impact force of the tsunami. These small tanks in thetsunami wave then collide with the large tank which is fixed to the ground. The small cylindricaltanks were assumed to be filled with oil, and were regarded as obstacles or flotsam within thetsunami with a slip boundary condition relative to the ground. The large cylindrical tank was
fixed to the ground, and was assumed to be hollow (empty) with a shell thickness of 20 mm.
Figure 7 shows the SPH numerical results of the flotsam mixed tsunami. The flow characteristics
and behavior of its interface deformation and collision with the land structures were clearly
simulated.

20 m/sVelocity scholar
magnitude(a) Small tank mixed tsunami flow characteristics and its impact behavior on a land structure(b) Pov-RAY rendering result
Fig. 7. Flotsam mixed tsunami flow characteristics and behavior of its interface deformationand collision with a land structure by SPH method.

Impact force by tsunami [N]Fig. 8. Impact stress profile of land structure while flotsam mixed tsunami impingement by
SPH method (Color contour denotes the scalar magnitude of stress in land structure).

Flotsam mixed tsunami(Secondary wave)

Single phase tsunami (without
flotsam, leading wave)

Time

Fig. 9. Effect of flotsam mixing with tsunami on the impact force with a land structure.

Figure 8 shows the impact stress profile of the land structure with flotsam mixed tsunami
impingement; an elastic-plastic body assumption was applied for the land structure. When thetwo small tanks impinge the larger tank land structure the maximum impact stress was 100MPa,
and a corresponding maximum plastic strain of 0.0015 was numerically obtained.
Figure 9 shows the effect of flotsam mixing with the tsunami on the impact force to the land
structure. In the case of a single phase tsunami (without flotsam, regarded as a leading wave), themaximum impact force was 3.5MN. In the case of a flotsam mixed tsunami (regarded as
secondary wave), the maximum impact force reached 42MN. In other words, it was found thatthe impact force magnitude of flotsam (small tank) mixed with the tsunami was over 10 times
than that of single phase (without flotsam case) tsunami.
Scale modeling the effect of flotsam mixing on tsunami damage
The flotsam is accelerated by the water flow caused by the tsunami, with its motion andhydrodynamic force dominated by the inertia of the water and flotsam and by the force of gravity
acting on the water and flotsam. The dominant physical law and similarity law for thiscomputational system are introduced by following formula [10, 11].
Dominant physical law:
Buoyancy:

Fb = ∆ρ gl 3

Inertia:l
Fi = ρ ml 3 2
t

v=

l
t

ρ ml 2 v 2Similarity law:

π1 =

ρ v2
Fi
→ m
∆ρ gl
Fb

π2 =

v2
→ (Froude number of single-phase tsunami)gl(Froude number of flotsam mixed tsunami)

π1 ρm=→ (Effect of flotsam mixing on tsunami damage)π 2 ∆ρ
where ∆ρ is the density difference between flotsam and seawater, ρ m is the mixture density oftsunami, g is the gravitational acceleration, v is the velocity, l is the characteristic length, and t is
the time. According to the above analysis, it was found that Froude number was suitable toevaluate the effect of mixing of flotsam on the tsunami impact damage. As the mixture density
increased, namely, the amount of flotsam became larger and the density difference between
flotsam and seawater became smaller, the damage of the mixed tsunami to the land structureincreased. The scale effect of the mixture density and the density difference between flotsam andseawater became the dominant factors for tsunami impact force and damage prediction.
Therefore, quite reasonable results have been obtained by the present computations in which theland structure received much greater damage by the impingement of a small tank mixed tsunami
as compared to that of the lumber mixing case.
Experimental approach for tsunami scale modelingTo validate the numerical results on the height and traveling velocity of a tsunami wave,
University of Kentucky students [12] conducted the 1/1000th and 1/2000th scale model during theME 565 course for the Great East Cost Earthquake generated tsunami in March 2011. A
commercially available detergent was added to water to reduce the surface tension force for the
scale model to approximately satisfy the Weber number [11], a ratio of the inertia and the surface

Fig. 10. A color photo taken from side for the 1/1000th scale model generated tsunami [12].
tension forces. A series of color photographs including Figure 10 were taken during theexperiments, which showed the scale model tsunami shape and behavior surprisingly similar to
the full scale tsunami reported by a Japanese TV news [13]. The moving speed of tsunami wasroughly correlated by the Fr number scaling although the source term was not scaled, since thefull scale data was not available at that time. This is another surprise for validity of this simple
scale model experiment.
Conclusions
1.

Two different supercomputing approaches, including the ALE method (Arbitrary
Lagrangian-Eulerian Method) and SPH method (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics
Method), were used to investigate flow characteristics of a flotsam mixed tsunami.

2.

The flotsam mixed tsunami behavior associated with interface deformation and collision
with land structures was reasonably reproduced by the supercomputing methods.

3.

The impact stress profile of land structures with flotsam mixed tsunami impingement wascomputationally predicted. As a result, it was shown that the impact force of a flotsam mixedtsunami would be over 10 times greater than that of single phase tsunami (without flotsamcase). It was also found that the scale effects of mixture density and density differences
between flotsam and seawater is the dominant factor for tsunami impact force and damage
prediction.

Acknowledgements
We thank LANCEMORE Co. and Explosion Research Institute Inc. for their cooperation andassistance on the tsunami code programing. This study was partially sponsored by the Instituteof Fluid Science, Tohoku University under the Multiple Collaborative Research Project 2013
(Budget code: 55059970). We thank John Stencel for his invaluable comments.
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Goto, K., Okada, K., Imamura, F., ``Numerical analysis of boulder transport by the 2004
Indian Ocean tsunami at Pakarang Cape, Thailand,’’ Marine Geology 268 (1-4): 97-105 (2010).
[3]
Fujita, K., Goto, C., ``Truncation error of numerical simulation of linear dispersive wave
theory, ‘’ Proc. of 2nd Int. Conf. Asian and Pacific Coasts,’’ [CD-ROM] (2003).
[4]
Goto, C. and Shuto, N., ``Numerical simulation of tsunami propagations and run-up,’’
Tsunamis- Their Science and Engineering (Iida. K., and Iwasaki, T. eds.), Terra Scientific
Publishing, 1983, pp. 439-451.
[5]
Goto, C. and Shuto, N., ``Effects of large obstacles on tsunami inundations,’’ TsunamisTheir Science and Engineering (Iida. K., and Iwasaki, T. eds.), Terra Scientific Publishing, 1983,
pp. 511-525.
[6]
Masden, P.A., Sørensen, O. R., ``A new form of the Boussinesq equations with improved
linear dispersion characteristics, part 2, a slowly-varying bathymetry,’’ Coastal Eng. 18: 183-204(1992).
[7] Nwogu, O., ``Alternative form of Boussinesq equations for nearshore wave propagation,’’J. Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Eng. 119 (6): 618-638 (1993).
[8]
Bazilevs, Y., Computational Fluid-Structure Interaction: Methods and Applications(Wiley Series in Computational Mechanics), John Wiley & Sons, UK, 2013.
[9]
Violeau, D, Fluid Mechanics and the SPH Method: Theory and Applications, Oxford
Univ. Pr., Oxford, UK, 2012.
[10] Saito, K. edited, Progress in Scale Modeling: Summary of the First International
Symposium on Scale Modeling (ISSM in 1988) and Selected Papers from subsequent Symposia(ISSM II in 1997 through ISSM V in 2006), Springer, 2008.
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[13]“The Great East Coast Earthquake,” Asahi Shinbun Press, May 2011, Japan.

International Innovation Workshop on
Tsunami, Snow Avalanche & Flash Flood Energy Dissipation
October 20-21, 2014, Chamonix, France

Supercomputing of Tsunami Damage Mitigation by
Offshore Mega-Floating Structures
ISHIMOTO, Jun
Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University
Address: Sendai 980-8577 JAPANe-mail address: ishimoto@alba.ifs.tohoku.ac.jp
Abstract:
The mitigation effect of mega-floating structures on the water level and hydrodynamic force caused by the offshore tsunami
has been computationally simulated using SPH method taking into account the fluid-structure interaction (FSI). This study,
our first attempt of the supercomputing can reproduce the tsunami flow with wave-making, inertial motion accompanying withelastic deformation of floating structures. As the computational results, we numerically found that inertial motion and elastic
deformation of mega-floating structures can contribute to reduce the tsunami’s seawater-level and to dissipate a hydrodynamic
energy of offshore tsunami. This study can help optimize the strength of seashore buildings and structures against future
tsunami threats, and also can help estimate structural damage that can be caused by large-scale natural disasters like hurricanes,
storms and tornados, and help to develop effective mitigation tools and systems.
Introduction
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake (The Great East Coast Earthquake) hit off the Sendai coast area in Japan, March 11, 2011 andcreated a huge tsunami which claimed more than 20,000 lives. As a defense against tsunami damage, construction of largesturdy breakwater and seawall in the vicinity of the coast are merely symptomatic treatment, such a conventional fundamental
solutions. Therefore, we propose the new fundamental mitigation technique to reduce the seawater level and hydrodynamic
damage of offshore tsunami by using fluid-structure interaction (FSI) of mega-floating structures. To evaluate the mitigation
effect of mega-float structure on tsunami’s momentum, we have developed a scale modeling method for huge geometry suchas offshore mega-float region, and FSI supercomputing method for the tsunami behavior of its interface causing deformation
when in collision with structures which has the elastic deformation.
Computation of a tsunami and mega-floating structure FSI behavior by SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics)
methodWe constructed the SPH method to investigate the interaction between a tsunami and mega-float structures, and also toinvestigate the mitigation effect of mega-float FSI on tsunami hydrodynamic force. As the actual offshore region with megafloat has a huge region, we developed the scale modeling method to minimize the region to create the numerical model andcomputational geometry.
Figure 1 shows the SPH numerical results of the FSI between tsunami and mega-floating structure. The numerical wave
creation is in reference to the actual history of tsunami water-level obtained by measurement data of Fukushima offshore region[1]. The wave-making of tsunami is performed by cyclic displacement of side wall motion. As a result of computation, we
numerically found that an inertial motion and elastic deformation of mega-floating structures can contribute to reduce thetsunami’s seawater-level and to dissipate a hydrodynamic energy of offshore tsunami.

International Innovation Workshop on
Tsunami, Snow Avalanche & Flash Flood Energy Dissipation
October 20-21, 2014, Chamonix, France

Mega-floating structure

Figure 1 SPH computational results of the FSI between tsunami and mega-floating structure
References[1] Abdul MUHARI, Fumihiko IMAMURA, Anawat SUPPASRI and Erick MAS, ''Tsunami arrival time characteristics ofthe 2011 East Japan Tsunami obtained from eyewitness accounts, evidence and numerical simulation,'' Journal of Natural
Disaster Science, Volume 34, Number 1, 2012, pp.91-104.