Large-scale laboratory experiments and numerical modeling of wave and surge effects on residential buildings in a coastal city

Abstract

Three different large-scale physical models were conducted in Oregon State University’s Directional Wave Basin. The computational fluid dynamics technique was carried out for the model validation and the studies on the wave and structure interactions on a residential building. olaFlow based on OpenFOAM (Open source Fields Operation And Manipulation), three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model was used to complete the CFD analysis in this research. In the first study, overland-flow experiment, the 1:20 scaled simplified non-breakable specimens were installed to investigate tsunami impact on the coastal communities considering the four different countermeasure configurations and varying tsunami conditions. The main object of this experiment is to verify the numerical model for hydrodynamics and water surface. The laboratory experiments of a wood-framed residential building in the second and third studies were conducted simultaneously on a 1:6 scale, sharing the same experimental setup. The structural damage and failure mechanism analysis under varying extreme surge conditions was conducted in the second study, the On-grade building experiment. In the third study, the Elevated building experiment, wave-induced horizontal and vertical forces on the specimen were acquired by numerical simulation. The close dependence of vertical force and the elevation on the bottom of the specimen regarding the still water depth (air gap) was confirmed. The correlations of the horizontal forces and physical parameters (\alpha and momentum flux) were presented as results. Also, pressure distributions on the vertical line of the frontal area were studied under the different water depth and wave breaking conditions.