Three-phase flow simulation of beach erosion induced by breaking tsunami-like waves

Shijie Huang, PhD Candidate
Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Location Information
**This seminar will be held both in person (Watanabe Hall 112) and over Zoom**
Meeting ID: 961 6222 2366
Passcode: OREseminar
https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96162222366

Devastating tsunami waves can mobilize a substantial amount of coastal sediments, causing significant morphological changes to the coastline. To understand the underlying hydrodynamics and sediment transport mechanisms associated with tsunami waves, a three-phase (air, water, and sediment) flow Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model based on OpenFOAM was used to simulate the beach erosion induced by breaking tsunami-like waves. In this talk, I will first briefly introduce the three-phase flow model being used for the simulation, which will be followed by the numerical setup based on a set of experiments reported in the literature.  After validating the simulation results by comparing them against the measurements, the detailed simulation results that were not measured in the experiments will be presented to help understand the hydrodynamics and sediment transport sequences in the wave transformation processes (wave shoaling, breaking, runup, rundown and hydraulic jump). The simulation results suggest that the hydrodynamics and sediment transport is accompanied by distinct characteristics in different stages of the wave transformation processes. The limitations of the current three-phase flow model and future work on further improving the model will be discussed lastly.