Numerical analysis of tsunami-like wave impact on horizontal cylinders

Abstract

During the past few decades, several tsunami events have caused tremendous devastation to onshore and offshore infrastructures. Although the tsunami waves have been studied with solitary waves since 1970s, the wave profile differences between solitary and tsunami waves directly result in the significant differences in their energy carrying capability and potential destructive impacts. In this study, a tsunami-like wave profile has been adopted by using a composition of solitary waves to simulate a real tsunami wave profile. A two-phase flow model was numerically resolved with the finite volume method with the volume of fluid method to track the free surface. The numerical model was first validated against the experimental and theoretical studies with the solitary wave. And then, the impact of tsunami waves at submerged horizontal cylinders was numerically studied. The hydrodynamic differences between the solitary wave and tsunami-like wave passing the submerged cylinders have been discussed, which shows the significant differences on the punching forces and the velocity field evolution around the cylinders. Moreover, the effects of wave height and submersion depth on the hydrodynamic loads were considered, and the influence of the spacing distance on the interactions between cylinders in a tandem arrangement was also investigated.