Experimental Study of Tsunami Force Coefficients for Imwon Port on the East Coast of Korea

Abstract

Baek, D.; Lee, B.W.; Ha, T.; Jang, S.-W., and Yoon, J.-S., 2023. Experimental study of tsunami force coefficients for Imwon Port on the east coast of Korea. Journal of Coastal Research, 39(1), 175–180. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. A tsunami can cause severe damage to people and infrastructure in coastal areas through inundation caused by strong wave forces. In this study, three-dimensional hydraulic experiments were conducted to estimate tsunami force coefficients at Imwon Port, which is located on the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula. For hydraulic experiments, the offshore topography around the target area and the onshore structures in the port hinterland were modeled by applying the Froude similitude. Solitary waves were adopted as incident tsunami waves. The inundation water depths and tsunami forces were mainly measured in the onshore region to estimate the tsunami force coefficients. The tsunami force coefficients obtained at Imwon Port ranged from 0.85 to 5.27. The maximum wave forces and inundation depth were observed at the forefront structures closest to the shoreline among the measuring points. The tsunami force coefficients estimated for Imwon Port in this study can help to establish the design criteria for preventing tsunami disasters.