3rd Annual International Workshop& Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery

(AIWEST-DR) 2008
Syiah Kuala University ,NAD, Indonesia, December 17-19, 2008

TSUNAMI RUN-UP INDUCED SCOURING

Budianto Ontowirjo1 and Velly Asvaliantina2
1

BPDP BPPT , Jakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT
The Tsunami bore phenomenon produces dramatic overturning waves, strong adverse
pressure gradient on the seabed and transport of high suspended sediment concentration.
Evaluations of the physical structure of Tsunami bore as the major source of turbulence
and affected bottom conditions are equally important for an accurate predictions of
sediment transport. In this study, a coupled Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) k turbulent closure and sediment transport model are developed to evaluate turbulent
flows, sediment transport and evolution of seabed in the run-up swash zones. The RANS
VOF turbulent model will estimate the boundary layer thickness to provide accurate
phase-resolving hydrodynamic quantities including velocity profiles and bottom shear
stress. A reasonable phase-resolving total load sediment transport model based on more
physical grounds is employed to estimate the suspended sediment concentration as well as
sediment fluxes. A stable Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) scheme is utilized
to calculate the sediment scouring. Severe beach erosion is observed when a typical
Tsunami bore up-rushed the beach slope and results are compared with experimental and
field data. The applicability of the new method for Tsunami Run-up induced sediment
transport modeling in the surf and swash zones are discussed.

1.

INTRODUCTION

During the propagation from the deep ocean to the shore, Earthquake
generated Tsunami undergo many changes in respond to the changing depth. When
the water is sufficiently deep, the propagating waves are unaffected by the presence
of the bottom. As the depth decreases, the wave shoal, skew and pitch forward until
it breaks and continues to run-up far inland in a form of a bore. This Tsunami bore
phenomenon produces dramatic overturning waves, strong adverse pressure gradient
on the seabed and transport of high suspended sediment concentration. Evaluations
of the physical structure of Tsunami bore as the major source of turbulence and
affected bottom conditions are equally important for an accurate predictions of
sediment transport. RANS-VOF k- turbulent flow models developed by Lin and Liu
(1997) is selected in this study to produce accurate representation of Tsunami bore
up- rushed as well as turbulent flow quantities.
Sediment transport formulation for waves or combined waves and currents,
up to present date are mostly based on the quasi-steady assumption. Among sediment
transport formulas recently developed for total load sediment transport (bed load plus
suspended load), formulation from Van Rijn (2005) is selected for validation of the
present model.
The sediments on the bottom feel the shear stress exerted by waves instead of
the orbital velocity of waves. Due to the viscous nature of fluid and turbulence

3rd Annual International Workshop& Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery
(AIWEST-DR) 2008
Syiah Kuala University ,NAD, Indonesia, December 17-19, 2008

within a bottom boundary layer thickness, the shear stress has a significant phase
difference with the wave motion. The phase lag will decrease significantly as the
turbulence viscosity increases. Recently, in a small-scale two-phase sheet flow
model, Hsu et al. (2003) and Hsu and Hanes (2004) demonstrated that the
instantaneous sediment transport rate under unsteady forcing follows the
instantaneous bed shear stress closely. As is pointed out by recent work in Hsu et al.
(2004), major transport of sediments occurs within a very concentrated layer near the
bed so that applicability of total load transport can be examined further.
Long and Kirby (2003) have used Boussinesq model predictions to drive an
instantaneous transport model, allowing a stable Weighted Essentially NonOscillatory (WENO) morphology model to accumulate on a wave by wave basis.
Qualitatively accurate representation of onshore bar migration movement was
achieved.
Motivated by the work of Long and Kirby (2006) the objective of the present
work is to utilize a more appropriate turbulence flow model for the local boundary
layer structure and total sediment transport in order to provide a profile evolution
model. Specific tasks include:
1. Couple the RANS VOF turbulent model with a boundary layer model to provide
accurate phase-resolving hydrodynamic quantities including velocity profiles and
bottom shear stress
2. Propose a reasonable phase-resolving total load sediment transport model based
on more physical grounds
3. Model the WENO morphology change due to sediment transport induced scour
and deposition in space
4. Couple the morphology change with the RANS VOF hydrodynamic model in
order to calculate evolution over extended time periods.
2.
2.1

TURBULENT FLOW AND SEDIMENT TRANSPORT MODEL

Turbulent Flow Model

The governing equations for the computation of unified sediment transport

and bed morphology under plunging breaker are given in the following section. The
governing equations for incompressible turbulent flow are the Reynolds-Averaged
NavierStokes equations, for continuity equation written in tensor notation:
u
Af i = 0
(1)
xi
and momentum equation may be written as follows,
A f u i
u i
1 p 1 A f ij
+uj
=
+
t
V f x j
xi V f x j

+ gi

(2)

where ui is mean velocity, i = 1,2,3 indices in the x, y and z direction respectively; j =

1,2,3 is a repeated indices in the x, y and z direction, gi is the gravitational

3rd Annual International Workshop& Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery
(AIWEST-DR) 2008
Syiah Kuala University ,NAD, Indonesia, December 17-19, 2008

acceleration, ij is the shear stresses or Reynolds stresses. Af is the fractional open

area open to flow in the x and z direction and Vf is the fractional volume open to
flow. Af and Vf are VOF fractional function.
The closure equation for turbulent kinetic energy, k and turbulent energy dissipation
rate, are given by:
t
k
u i
+

+ ij
x j
k
x j

(3)

t

u i
2
+
C 2

+ C1 ij
k x j
k

x j

(4)

k
k

+uj
=
t
x j x j

+uj
=
t
x j x j

where ui is the mean velocity, ij the Reynoldsstress, is kinematic viscosity and

k2
t = Cd
is eddy viscosity, respectively.

The total stresses ij in equation (3) and (4) related to k , and ij in the following
relationship
2
ij = 2( + t ) ij k ij
(5)
3
where ij is the Kronecker delta and ij is the mean strain rate tensor and defined as
follows,
u j
1 u

ij = i +
(6)
2 x j x i
The expressions for all the above coefficients and the detail description of turbulent
flow model RANS-VOF can be found in (Lin and Liu 1998a) and Lin and Xu
[2006].
2.2

Suspended Sediment Transport Model

The distribution of suspended sediment concentration c is determined from

the following advection diffusion equation:
A c
A c A f t c
c
+ ui f
+ ws f
=

V f xi
V f z V f xi c x j
t

(9)

where c is the suspended sediment concentration, ws is the settling velocity of

sediment and c is the turbulent Schmidt number relating the turbulent diffusivity of
sediment to the eddy viscosity t . For practical application in this study the turbulent
Schmidt number is taken as unity, c = 1.0 . The settling velocity is computed by
using formulation from Rubey [1933]. On the seabed, rough bed condition is
assumed. Bottom boundary layer model for computational points adjacent to the

3rd Annual International Workshop& Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery
(AIWEST-DR) 2008
Syiah Kuala University ,NAD, Indonesia, December 17-19, 2008

bottom solid boundary is derived from the logarithmic law profile for stream
velocity. Assuming that the grid cell velocity is half a grid away from the point
where the boundary condition is defined. The shear velocity and bottom shear stress
are calculated from the following equations,
u
1
z
= ln
u z0
1
b = u* u*
2

(10)
(11)

where u is near bottom velocity, u* is the shear velocity, z0 is roughness height and z
is height of velocity point grid, is von Karman constant = 0.4 and b is turbulent
shear stress.
For non cohesive sediment, a reference height is calculated based on the bed
roughness. Net erosion and deposition for suspended sediment is calculated as source
and sink in one grid cell above the seabed. The source of sediment is computed by
the references concentration formulation according to the formulation from (van Rijn
1984),
C
C Ca
=
ws
z
t
t
1.5
d (T )
C a = 0.015 s 50 a 0.3
a(D* )

(12)
(13)

1/ 3

g
D* = d50 s
2

cr
Ta = b

(14)
(15)

cr

in which: s is density of sediment, cr = critical shear stress, Ca is the suspended

concentration of the sediment at the reference height a, Ta and D* are the
dimensionless bed shear stress and dimensionless particle diameter respectively. The
sink of suspended sediment leaving one grid cell is calculated by.
C
C
= ws
t
z

3.

(16)

COMPUTATIONAL MODEL SETUP

The benchmark tests consist of two laboratory experiments: test 1: Plunging

breaker on a mild slope, Ting and Kirby [1995], test 2: seabed morphology on steep
slope, Ikeno and Shimizu [1997]. Selected laboratory experiments with complete sets
of velocity fields, free surface profiles, turbulent transport quantities, eddy viscosity
and subsequent seabed profiles are chosen in this study to verify the numerical model
performance. The experiments were conducted in a two-dimensional wave tank with

3rd Annual International Workshop& Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery
(AIWEST-DR) 2008
Syiah Kuala University ,NAD, Indonesia, December 17-19, 2008

variable depth, slope, design wave and type of breaking wave condition as tabulated
below: The problem setup for case study plunging breaker and eddy viscosity were
set according to the definition given in experiment data of Ting and Kirby [1995].
The origin is set on the slope where the still water depth d = 0.40 m. The internal
wave-maker is located at x = 6.7 m. The left boundary is made to be a radiation
boundary that is behind an artificial sponge layer with a length of xs=1.5, where is
the wavelength. The fine non-uniform mesh of dx = 0.01, 0.05 m and dz = 0.006 m
are used for plunging breaker case. In addition, = 1000 kg/m3 and = 1.3 x 10-6
m2/s were used in all simulations. The computational domain was 46.9 m long and
1.0 m high. The problem setup for case study seabed morphology is set according to
the definition given in experiment data of Ikeno and Shimizu [1997]. The origin is
set on the slope where the still water depth d = 0.80 m. The internal wave-maker is
located at x = 4.0 m. The fine uniform mesh of dx = 0.01 m and dz = 0.01 m are
used for plunging breaker case. The computational domain was 16.0 m long and 1.6
m high and divided into 1600 cells in the x-direction and 160 cells in the z-direction.
Bottom roughness is set to mean diameter of sediment size d50 of 0.6mm.

4.

NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Evaluation of phase averaged free surface elevations , horizontal velocity u,

turbulent kinetic energy k and evolution of seabed profile related to turbulence
closure and net erosion-deposition of total (bed and suspended) sediment load
properties will be presented in this chapter.
Figure 3 shows the phase averaged free surface elevation over one wave period for
four different measurement stations for test 1. Local wave height H is 19.1 cm, wave
set-up is -0.25 cm, and mean water depth h is 15.4 cm. The design waves, wave
period T = 5 s and wave height H = 0.128 m, a cnoidal waves were specified and
generated. The implementation of sponge layer and internal wave generator [Lin and
Liu, 1999] eliminates influences from reflected waves and allows simulation to run
much longer time. The computation was run for 40 wave cycles, which consider the
quasy steady state condition has been reached. The initial conditions for this case
were u = w = 0 m/s, k = 8.3 x 10-6 m2/s2, and = 5.789 x 10-6 m2/s3. (x-xb)/hb is a
non dimensional distance between breaking and measurement points to water depth
at breaking point. h/hb is dimensionless local depth to breaker depth. With regards to
the phase averaging and non dimensional process as described in the experiment,
values are taken from different time and depth according to the limitation of the grid
sized. For the phase averaging experimental data were taken 20 minutes after waves
are already in steady state condition where as in the computation data are phase
averaged from available from 30 to 40 waves cycles with the assumption that waves
are already in steady state conditions. The model predicted values of near the surface
and near bottom well in the outer surf zone.

3rd Annual International Workshop& Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery
(AIWEST-DR) 2008
Syiah Kuala University ,NAD, Indonesia, December 17-19, 2008

Table 1. Selected experiment for model verification

Wave Hight Wave Period
Case Study
Slope
(meter)
(second)
Turbulent flow
0.128
5
1:35
Morphology
0.24
1.35
1:10
1

0.5
(y-)/h

0.5

LES SPH
EXP
RANS VOF

0.75

LES SPH
EXP
RANS VOF

0.75

(y-)/h

d50
(mm)
0.0
0.6

0.25

0.25

-0.25

-0.25
-0.5

-0.5
0

0.2

0.4

t/T

0.6

0.8

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

t/T

Fig. 1. Phase averaged free surface elevations at (a) (x-xb)/hb=3.571, h/hb= 1.0; (b) (x-xb)/hb =6.494,
h/hb = 0.857;
0.5

0.6

EXP
RANS VOF

0.4
0.3
0.2

0.2
u/C

u/C

EXP
RANS VOF

0.4

0.1

0
-0.1

-0.2

-0.2
-0.3

-0.4

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

0.2

t/T

0.4

0.6

0.8

t/T

Fig. 2. Phase averaged horizontal velocities at (a) (x-xb)/hb =3.571, h/hb = 1.0, (z-)/h = -0.2867; (b)
(x-xb)/hb =6.494, h/hb = 0.857, (z-)/h = -0.4023
0.05

0.05
LES SPH
EXP
RANS VOF

k/(C*C)

0.03

LES SPH
EXP
RANS VOF

0.04
0.03

k/(C*C)

0.04

0.02

0.02

0.01

0.01

0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

t/T

t/T

Fig. 3. Phase averaged turbulent kinetic energy at (a) (x-xb)/hb =3.571, h/hb = 1.0, (z-)/h = -0.2867;
(b) (x-xb)/hb =6.494, h/hb = 0.857, (z-)/h = -0.4023

3rd Annual International Workshop& Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery
(AIWEST-DR) 2008
Syiah Kuala University ,NAD, Indonesia, December 17-19, 2008

1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1

51

101

151

201

251

Fig. 4. Seabed morphology after 3.6 hours of simulation case study 2

5.

CONCLUSIONS
The accuracy and capability of the model is verified by comparing the
simulated results with the available experimental data for both turbulent flow and
suspended sediment transport. The model is capable to capture the run-up
phenomena in the swash zone.
The new model has resolved the limitation of the existing turbulent bore and
suspended sediment transport model. The calculation shows better agreement with
the experimental data on the surface profile, mean velocity, turbulent energy and
suspended sediment concentration for a plane beach as well as barred beach. In
conclusion, given the fact that, the proposed models can describe both turbulence
flow and suspended sediment transport, it is anticipated that the new model can be
useful tools in the study of surf zone dynamics. For the extension of the present
study, the result suggests the applicability of the new approach to the swash zones
where eroded beach becomes the source of suspended sediment.
6.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The study results present here is supported by the Japan Society for
Promotion of Science JSPS Fellowship. The writer would like to thank Dr. Lin Peng
Zhi for his turbulent model source code and extensive technical discussion regarding
the numerical model. We would also like to thank Dr. Francis K. Ting for his
plunging breaker experimental data.

7.

REFERENCES

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Ikeno, M. & Shimizu T. (1997) Characteristics of Suspended Sediment Transport in the Surf Zone of
Irregular Waves and their Reproduction by a On-Off shore Beach Deformation Model, CRIEPI
Abiko Lab. Rep. no. U96037, pp.5-40 (in Japanese).
Lin,P. & Liu, P.L.-F. (1998a) A numerical Study of Breaking Waves in the Surf Zone, J. Fluid
Mechanics. 359: 239264

3rd Annual International Workshop& Expo on Sumatra Tsunami Disaster and Recovery
(AIWEST-DR) 2008
Syiah Kuala University ,NAD, Indonesia, December 17-19, 2008

Lin,P. & Liu, P.L.-F. (1998b) Turbulence Transport, Vorticity Dynamics, and Solute Mixing Under
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