The Evolution of Undular Bore in Coastal Zone: Effect of Bottom Slope, Friction and Special Topography

Abstract

When tsunami waves propagate into shallow and gentle continental shelves, the effects of submarine topography and wave dispersion lead to the appearance of undular bore. This kind of wave is quite different from the initial tsunami wave in the waveform, and its amplitude is enhanced significantly. The undular bore will cause great and repeated runups on the beach, which brings larger destruction to the coastal region. In order to investigate the characteristics of the propagation of undular bore, this paper simulates the evolution from the sinusoidal long wave to the undular bore and analyzes the influencing factors. The beach slope has an important effect on the development of undular bores in terms of the undulation form, amplitude, wave length and occurrence time. The influence of bottom friction and submarine topography on the undulations and soliton fissions are discussed. These bottom conditions will lead to great change of the waveform and amplitude of undular bores.