Tsunami-Induced Bores Propagating over a Canal, Part II: Numerical Experiments Using the Standard k-ε Turbulence Model

Abstract

This companion paper presents the results of a series of numerical experiments examining the effects of a mitigation canal on the hydrodynamics of a tsunami-like turbulent bore proceeding over a horizontal bed. The hydraulic bores were generated by a dam-break setup which employed impoundment depths of do = 0.20 m, 0.30 m, and 0.40 m. The bore propagated downstream of the impoundments in the flume and interacted with a canal with varying geometry located downstream. The bore then left the flume through a drain located further downstream of the canal. In this study, the effect of the canal depth on the specific momentum and specific energy of hydraulic bores passing over a rectangular canal is numerically studied. The canal width was kept constant, at w = 0.6 m, while the canal depths were varied as follows: d = 0.05 m, 0.10 m, and 0.15 m. The time history of mean flow energy during the bore’s passing over the mitigation canal indicates that the jet stream of the maximum mean flow energy is controlled by the canal depth. The time required to dissipate the jet stream of the maximum vorticity, the turbulent kinetic energy, and the energy dissipation rate all increased as the canal depth decreased. The effect of canal orientation on the bore hydrodynamics was also numerically investigated, and it was found that the impulsive momentum and specific energy reached the highest values for canal orientations of 45 and 60 degrees. For the same canal depth, the highest peak specific momentum occurred with the highest degree of canal orientation (θ = 60°).