IMPROVING RESILIENCE OF COASTAL STRUCTURES SUBJECT TO TSUNAMI-LIKE WAVES

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Abstract

AbstractUniversity of Manchester Gede Pringgana Doctor of PhilosophyImproving Resilience of Coastal Structures Subject to Tsunami-like Waves2016 This thesis investigates tsunami impact on shore-based, low-rise structures in coastal areas. The aims are to investigate tsunami wave inundation in built-up coastal areas with reference to structural response to wave inundation, to assess the performance of current design codes in comparison with validated state-of-the-art numerical models and to improve structural design of residential buildings in tsunami risk areas. Tsunami events over the past few decades have shown that a significant proportion of fatalities can be attributed to the collapse of building infrastructure due to various actions of the incident waves. Although major tsunami events have demonstrated the potential catastrophic effects on built infrastructure, current building codes have no detailed or consistent guidance on designing structures in tsunami-prone regions. Furthermore, considerable differences in existing empirical formulae highlight that new research is necessary to appropriately address the particularities of the tsunami-induced forces and structure response into the design standards. In this thesis, numerical modelling methods are used to simulate hydrodynamic impact on shore-based coastal structures. The hydrodynamic simulations were conducted using a novel meshless numerical method, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), which is coupled with the finite element (FE) method to model structural behaviour. The SPH method was validated with experimental data for bore impact on an obstacle using a convergence study to identify the optimum particle size to capture the hydrodynamics. The FE model was validated against experimental data for plates under transient blast loads which have similar load characteristics with impulsive tsunami-induced bore impacts. One of the contributions of the thesis is the use of a new coupling method of the SPH-based software DualSPHysics and FE-based software ABAQUS. Using SPH particle spacing of the same size as the FE mesh size, enables the SPH output pressure to be directly applied as an input to the structural response model. Using this approach the effects of arrangement and orientation of single and multiple low rise structures are explored. Test cases were performed in 2-D and 3-D involving a discrete structure and multiple structures. The 3-D SPH simulations with single and multiple structures used an idealised coastal structure in the form of a cube with different on-plan orientations (0°, 30°, 45° and 60°) relative to the oncoming bore direction. The single structure cases were intended to study the improvement of the resilience of coastal structures by reducing the acting pressures on the vertical surfaces by changing the structure’s orientation. It was found the pressure exerted on the vertical surface of structure can be reduced by up to 50% with the 60° orientation case. The multiple structure models were conducted to examine shielding and flow focusing phenomena in tsunami events. The results reveal that the distance between two adjacent front structures can greatly influence the pressure exerted on the rear structure. This thesis also demonstrates the capability of SPH numerical method in simulating standard coastal engineering problems such as storm waves impact on a recurve wall in 2-D. The idealised structures were represented as standard timber construction and the finite element modelling was used to determine the corresponding stress distributions under tsunami impact. Following the comparison of the method used in this thesis with commonly used design equations based on the quasi-static approach, large differences in stress prediction were observed. In some cases the loads according to the design equations predicted maximum stresses almost one order of magnitude lower. This large discrepancy clearly shows the potential for non-conservative design by quasi-static approaches. The new model for the simulation of tsunami impact on discrete and multiple structures shows that the resilience of a coastal structure can be improved by changing the orientation and arrangement. The characteristics of tsunami waves during propagation and bore impact pressures on structures can be assessed in great detail with the combined SPH and FE modelling strategy. The techniques outlined in this thesis will enable engineers to gain a better insight into tsunami wave-structure interaction with a view towards resilience optimisation of structures vulnerable to tsunami impact events.

Keyword(s)

coastal; finite element method; numerical modelling; resilience; smoothed particle hydrodynamics; timber structure; tsunami

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