Watch the terrifying moment a tsunami hits: Researchers recreate killer waves in lab for the first time
- Tsunami Simulator 70,000 litres of water to create tsunami at scale of 1:50
- The newest version runs along a 70 meter long, 4 meter wide channel
- It allows researchers to study impacts on urban environments for first time
Hydraulic engineers have created the world’s most realistic tsunami simulator, allowing researchers to replicate the terrifying power of seismic sea waves in the lab.
The Tsunami Simulator has been used to re-enact the most devastating waves in recent history, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011 event that ripped through Japan.
With the completion of the third generation simulator at Oxfordshire-based HR Wallingford’s Fast Flow Facility, researchers can now study the impact of these events on urban areas for the first time.
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Understanding how these factors come into play has potential to help improve future disaster management around the world.
The newest version of the Tsunami Simulator – preceded by a first generation in 2008 and a second generation after this – has been installed in a channel that’s 70 meter long, 4 meter wide channel.
HOW IT WORKS
The third generation simulator was designed using the OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamics software.
The massive simulator uses 70,000 litres of water to recreate a tsunami at a scale of 1:50, running along a 70 meter long, 4 meter wide channel.
The Tsunami Simulator has been installed in a channel that’s 70 meter long, 4 meter wide channel. And, to recreate a tsunami at a scale of 1:50, the massive simulator uses 70,000 litres of water
To create the tsunami, air is pumped out of the tank via a vacuum, drawing water out from the test flume.
When the air is released back in, the water flowing back into the flume generates a wave.
The wave shape can be controlled based on the position of the air valve at the top of the tank.
And, to recreate a tsunami at a scale of 1:50, the massive simulator uses 70,000 litres of water.
Footage of the recent trials shared on Twitter by Dr. David McGovern, Research Associate, UCL EPICentre, show just how powerful these waves can be.
‘Tsunamis can be exceptionally destructive when they hit buildings, yet we really don’t know a great deal about how the massive horizontal forces they generate act on buildings to cause damage,’ says Professor Tiziana Rossetto, Professor of Earthquake Engineering and Director of UCL EPICentre, who is leading the research.
‘The challenge has been to build a testing facility where we can accurately model these forces on a variety of physical structures, as well as how the forces change or are magnified by the way buildings are clustered together in coastal towns and cities.
‘Our research at this unique facility will have far-reach implications for both building and urban design in areas at risk of tsunamis, and could help mitigate some of the most devastating risks of the phenomena to both human lives and the land they depend on.’
With the Tsunami Simulator, the researchers can model the effects of tsunamis on coastal defences and better understand how the water channels around clusters of buildings.
These tests can reveal whether the current defences are effective, or if they instead amplify the destructiveness of the waves by allowing the waters first to build up, and then inundate the areas behind when the defences suddenly fail.
Researchers plan to investigate coastal defences and the resilience of urban environments following the occurrence of a tsunami. Understanding how these factors come into play has potential to help improve future disaster management around the world
These tests can reveal whether the current defences are effective, or if they instead amplify the destructiveness of the waves by allowing the waters to build up, and then inundate the areas behind when the defences suddenly fail
The Urban Waves project is being funded in part by a European Research Council Starting Grant of roughly $2 million, and will continue in its experimental phase until this October.
Then, the facility will open up to other researchers and organizations as well to expand studies on the effects of these devastating waves.
‘The unique feature of the new HR Wallingford Tsunami Simulator is that its tank-based generator allows us to generate a realistic tsunami wave, so simulating the full duration of a tsunami wave – a 20 minute wave duration is called to just over two minutes in the lab,’ says Professor William Allsop, Technical Director of Maritime Structures at HR Wallingford.
‘Almost no other device can do this.’
Hydraulic engineers have created the world’s most realistic tsunami simulator, allowing researchers to replicate the terrifying power of seismic sea waves in the lab
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