Experimental Investigation on Tsunami Acting on Bridges

Two tragic tsunamis that devastated the west coast of
Sumatra Island, Indonesia in 2004 and North East Japan in 2011 had
damaged bridges to various extents. Tsunamis have resulted in the
catastrophic deterioration of infrastructures i.e. coastal structures,
utilities and transportation facilities. A bridge structure performs vital
roles to enable people to perform activities related to their daily needs
and for development. A damaged bridge needs to be repaired
expeditiously. In order to understand the effects of tsunami forces on
bridges, experimental tests are carried out to measure the
characteristics of hydrodynamic force at various wave heights.
Coastal bridge models designed at a 1:40 scale are used in a 24.0 m
long hydraulic flume with a cross section of 1.5 m by 2.0 m. The
horizontal forces and uplift forces in all cases show that forces
increase nonlinearly with increasing wave amplitude.

• Iman Mazinani
• Zubaidah Ismail
• Ahmad Mustafa Hashim
• Amirreza Saba

• Tsunami
• bridge
• horizontal force
• uplift force.

[1] Unjoh, S. and K. Endoh, “Damage Investigation and the Preliminary Analyses of Bridge Damage caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami”. Technical Memorandum of Public Works Research Institute, 2006(4022): p. 97.
[2] Goring, D.G.,” Tsunamis--the propagation of long waves onto a shelf.” 1978, California Institute of Technology.
[3] Nistor, I., M. Saatcioglu, and A. Ghobarah.” The 26 December 2004 Earthquake and Tsunami-Hydrodynamic forces on physical infrastructure in Thailand and Indonesia”. Proceedings 2005 Canadian Coastal Engineering Conference. 2005.
[4] Yeh, H.H., I. Robertson, and J. Preuss, “Development of design guidelines for structures that serve as tsunami vertical evacuation sites.” 2005: Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Earth Resources
[5] Kataoka, S., T. Kusakabe, and K. Nagaya. “Wave forces acting on bridge girders struck by tsunami.” Proceedings of the 12th Japan Earthquake Engineering Symposium, . 2006. Tokyo, Japan: Japan Society of Civil Engineers.
[6] Shoji, G. and Y. Mori, “Hydraulic model experiment to simulate the damage of a bridge deck subjected to tsunamis”. Annual Journal of Coastal Engineering, 2006. 53(2): p. 801-805
[7] Iemura, H., et al., “Experiments of tsunami force acting on bridge models.” Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 2007. 29.
[8] Shoji, G. and T. Moriyama, “Evaluation of a tsunami wave load acting to a deck of a road bridge”. 2008.
[9] Shoji, G., et al., “Evaluation of Tsunami Fluid Force Acting on a Bridge Deck Subjected to Breaker Bores.” Procedia Engineering, 2011. 14: p. 1079-1088.
[10] Bricker, J.D., K. Kawashima, and A. Nakayama. “CFD analysis of bridge deck failure due to tsunami.” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Engineering Lessons Learned from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. 2012. Tokyo, Japan.
[11] Lukkunaprasit, P., et al. “Tsunami Wave Loading on a Bridge Deck with Perforations.” The 14th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. 2008.
[12] Hall Jr, J.V. and G.M. Watts,” Laboratory investigation of the vertical rise of solitary waves on impermeable slopes”. 1953, DTIC Document.