Experimental study on flow kinematics of dam-break induced surge impacting onto a vertical wall

Abstract

Tsunami surges are frequently simulated by dam-break flows over dry beds. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively investigate the flow kinematics and turbulent characteristics of a surge impacting onto a vertical wall. To quantify the flow kinematics, the particle image velocimetry technique was used in the non-aerated region, while the bubble image velocimetry technique was employed to measure the impact-induced turbulent flow with air entrainment. The measured velocity fields of the impact-induced splash confirmed the feasibility of Ko and Yeh's [Coastal Eng. 131, 1–11 (2018)] model employing a solid-body motion assumption of splash that estimates the impact force by bores and surges at the initial impact stage. Velocity fields and streamlines revealed that the main water body overturned backward and formed a large two-phase vortex, while a small counter rotating vortex was also formed at the corner of the wall-bed junction. The mean velocity magnitude of the small corner vortex is about two-thirds that of the main water body. The mean turbulent intensity of these aerated regions is about 3.4 times that of the non-aerated regions. Based on a wavelet transform-based method, the result reveals that the mean turbulence length scale of the aerated region is about two-thirds that of the non-aerated region. This study reveals for the first time the quantitative flow field results of the surge impact process, which deepen insight of tsunami risk in coastal engineering, thus improving the accuracy of post-damage prediction in coastal areas.