Performance assessment of the Tsunami-HySEA model for NTHMP tsunami currents benchmarking. Laboratory data

Abstract

The Tsunami-HySEA model is used to perform the five numerical benchmarks proposed in the “NTHMP/MMS Benchmarking Workshop: Tsunami currents”. Many different model configurations and sensitivity studies were performed for the different benchmarks, combining numerical methods of first, second, and third order, different friction laws, varying friction coefficients and numerical resolutions, or even different implementations of the boundary conditions. In this work, we include the three benchmark problems dealing with laboratory data, which are BP1 (truncated submerged circular cone), BP4 (Seaside, Oregon, city building model), and BP5 (solitary wave over a complex shelf). Benchmark 1 appeared to be the most difficult one of all for non-linear shallow water (NLSW) models due to its high sensitivity to parameters and the very complex wake structure occurring behind the submerged island. For the rest of the benchmark problems, a good fit was obtained with measured data. An initial version of the Tsunami-HySEA model implementing dispersion was used to reproduce BP4 and BP5. In the related paper Macías et al. (2020), the results corresponding to the two benchmarks dealing with field data that were proposed in the Benchmarking Workshop are described in detail.