A Study of Tsunami Wave Fission in an Undistorted Experiment

Abstract

To study tsunami soliton fission and split wave-breaking, an undistorted experiment was carried out which investigated tsunami shoaling on a continental shelf. Three models of the continental shelf were set up in a 205-m long 2-dimensional flume. Each shelf model was 100 m, long with slopes of either 1/100, 1/150, or 1/200. Water surface elevations were measured across the flume, including a dense cluster of wave gages installed around the point of wave-breaking. We propose new methods for calculating wave velocity and the wave-breaking criterion based on our interpretation of time series data of water surface elevation. At the point of wave-breaking, the maximum slope of water surface is between 20 to 50 deg., while the ratio of surface water particle horizontal velocity to wave velocity is from 0.5 to 1.2. The values determined by our study are larger than what has been reported by other researchers.