Numerical Simulations of The 2004 Indian Ocean Xiaoming Wang

September 21, 2007 16:47 WSPC/238-JET 00016
Journal of Earthquake and Tsunami, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2007) 273–297

c World Scientific Publishing Company
NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF THE 2004 INDIAN OCEAN

TSUNAMIS — COASTAL EFFECTS
XIAOMING WANG and PHILIP L.-F. LIU

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
J. Earthquake and Tsunami 2007.01:273-297. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
by MCMASTER UNIVERSITY on 02/09/15. For personal use only.
The 2004 Sumatra earthquake and the associated tsunamis are one of the most devas-
tating natural disasters in the last century. The tsunamis flooded a huge coastal area in
the surrounding countries, especially in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, and caused
enormous loss of human lives and properties. In this paper, tsunami inundations in Trin-
comalee, Sri Lanka and North Banda Aceh, Indonesia were simulated by using a finite-
difference model based on nonlinear shallow-water equations. The calculated tsunami
heights and inundations in these two regions are compared with the field measurements
and observations. Fairly good agreement is observed. Numerical results confirm again
that the local bathymetric and topographic characteristics play important roles in deter-
mining the inundation area. Numerical simulations further indicate that although non-
linearity becomes important in many dynamic aspects when tsunamis approach the
shore, its influence on determining the inundation area is relatively small in the regions
examined for this tsunami event. Finally, the potential capability of sediment transport
and a force index on a virtual structure in flooded areas are introduced and discussed.
1. Introduction
The 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake triggered one of the most devastating
natural disasters in the past several decades. The main shock occurred at 01:01:09
UTC on December 26, 2004, with the epicenter located at (3.09◦ N, 94.26◦E) and
the initial seismic moment was estimated to be 3.95 × 1029 dyne-cm (Mw = 9.0,
Harvard CMT solution). The earthquake generated giant tsunamis sweeping across
the Indian Ocean at a speed of 800 km/hour with a typical wave height of 0.5 to
1.0 meters in the ocean. Nearly 300 000 people were killed and more than one million
people were left homeless in 10 countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. Sadly, the
exact life loss may never be known.
In Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, field surveys have showed that the
tsunami heights along the coastal region of Sri Lanka were over 10 meters (Liu
et al., 2005) and the maximum tsunami wave height in Banda Aceh, Indonesia was
up to 30 meter (Borrero, 2005). Tsunami wave heights over 10 meters were also
recorded along Phuket, Thailand (Harada et al, 2005). In Mutur, Sri Lanka, more
than 1,000 km away from the epicenter of the earthquake, an inundation distance
up to 2 km was observed (Liu et al., 2005).
273
274 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu
In this paper, numerical simulations are performed to investigate tsunami inun-

dation in the vicinity of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka and northern Banda Aceh, Indone-
sia. The Trincomalee Bay is located on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka. For most
of the area inside the bay, the water depth varies from a few meters to tens of
meters. A submarine cannon stretches from continental shelf into the bay and the
head of the submarine cannon is very close to the shore. This local bathymetry
feature plays a significant role in determining the wave propagation direction and
the resulting inundation areas. On the other hand, Banda Aceh, Indonesia is very
close to the epicenter of the earthquake. The leading tsunami wave arrived at the
Northern Banda Aceh coast within 30 minutes.
The numerical results for wave heights and inundation areas around the Trin-
comalee Bay and North Banda Aceh are compared with both the field surveys (Liu
et al., 2005) and satellite observations. In the simulations, we also examine the
importance of bottom friction effects.

Using the numerical results, we introduce the Shields parameter as an index to
evaluate the sediment transport potential. It appears that if sediment sources are
available, significant erosion and sediment deposition can happen in both regions
investigated. This observation is consistent with Satellite images.
To assist in coastal zone planning against tsunami attacks in the future and
in developing structural design guideline, we introduce a force index based on the
Morrison’s formula. This index is applied to both Trincomalee and Banda Aceh
regions. It provides a reasonable explanation for the destruction of most of wooden
structures and un-enforced concrete buildings.
2. Tsunami Generation — Seafloor Deformation

During the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, along the fault line stretching from
Sumatra to Andaman Islands, where the Indo-Australian plate subducts the Sunda
and Burma sub-plates, a fault plane area of roughly 1200 km long and 200 km wide
ruptured. The resulting seafloor displacements generated free surface deformation
over a huge area, becoming the source of the mega tsunami. The fault plane mecha-
nism of this earthquake has been extensively studied (Ammon et al., 2005; Ji, 2005;
Lay et al., 2005). Seismic wave analyses show that the rupture speed was about 2
to 3 km/s and the entire process lasted more than 10 minutes, deforming an entire
fault area comparable to the size of California.
Because of the large dimension of the source region, both the spatial distribution
and the temporal evolution of the seafloor deformation may be important in model-
ing the tsunami generation process. Using several different fault plane mechanisms,
Wang and Liu (2006) compared simulated tsunami waves with the Satellite mea-
surements in Bay of Bengal during the tsunami. They concluded that the impulsive
and transient seafloor deformation models do not give significant quantitative dif-
ferences in predicting tsunami propagation in areas far away from the source region.
This is primarily due to the fact the rupture speed of the fault plane was at least
Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 275

Fig. 1. The initial sea surface elevation.
one order of magnitude larger than the celerity of tsunami propagation. Therefore,
in this paper the final seafloor displacement, determined from the transient fault
plane model by Ji et al. (2005), is adopted as the initial condition for the sea surface
deformation (see Fig. 1). The spatial variation of the sea surface is rather complex.
In general, the initial surface profile is positive (elevated) on the western side of the
fault line and negative (depressed) on the eastern side. The transect of surface pro-
file along Latitude = 5.47◦ N is given in Fig. 2. Along this transect, the maximum
surface elevation is less than 3 m and the maximum depression is less than 2 m.
3. Numerical Model for Tsunami Propagation and Coastal Effects

The numerical model — COMCOT (Cornell Multi-grid Coupled Tsunami
Model) — is used to simulate tsunami propagation in deep ocean basin and inunda-
tion in coastal areas. COMCOT uses a modified leap-frog finite difference scheme
to solve (both linear and nonlinear) shallow water equations in a staggered finite-
difference nested grid system. The model has been validated by experimental data
(Liu et al., 1995) and has been successfully used to investigate several historical
tsunami events, such as the 1960 Chilean tsunami, the 1992 Flores Islands (Indone-
sia) tsunami (Liu et al., 1994; Liu et al., 1995) and more recently the 2004 Indian
Ocean tsunami (Wang and Liu, 2006).

Fig. 2. The initial surface profile along the transect with Latitude = 5.47◦ N. The bathymetry is
also sketched and the sea surface elevation does not have the same vertical scale as that of water
depth.
Using a nested grid system, COMCOT is capable of simultaneously calculating

the tsunami propagation in ocean and the inundation in the targeted coastal zones.
In the nested grid system, the inner (finer grid) regions adopt a smaller grid size and
time step and are nested inside an outer (larger grid) region. At the beginning of
each time step, along the interface of two different regions, the volume flux, which is
product of water depth and depth-averaged velocity, is interpolated from the outer
(larger grids) region into inner (finer grids) region. The water surface elevations and
the volume fluxes in the inner (finer grids) region are calculated and the resulting
free surface elevations are averaged to update those values in the larger grids, which
overlaps the inner region. The volume fluxes in the outer (larger grids) region can
be updated. With this algorithm, we can capture nearshore features of tsunami
dynamics with a high spatial and temporal resolution and at the same time we can
still maintain a high computational efficiency.
To simulate coastal effects, a moving boundary scheme described by Cho (1995)
was employed, in which the “shoreline” is defined as the interface between a wet
grid and its adjacent dry grids. Along the “shoreline”, the volume flux is assigned
to be zero. Once the water surface elevation at the wet grid is higher than the land
elevation in its adjacent dry grids, the “shoreline” is moved one grid toward the
dry grid and the volume flux is no longer zero and needs to be calculated by the
governing equations.
3.1. Grid setup

In simulating the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the computational domain, covered
with the largest grid size (called Layer 1 hereinafter), ranges from 78.333◦E to
101.667◦E in Longitude and from −3.333◦S to 16.667◦N in Latitude, with a grid

size of 2 minutes (∼ 3.67 km) (see Fig. 3). The bathymetry data for this region are
obtained from ETOPO2. As we mentioned before, the amplitude of the 2004 Indian
Ocean tsunamis was about 0.5 m∼1 m in the water depth of about 3 km, while the
wavelength of the leading tsunami wave was in the order of magnitude of 200 km.
Thus, the linear shallow water equations in spherical coordinates are adequate to
describe tsunami propagation in Layer 1, which can be expressed as (Wang and
Liu, 2006):

∂ζ 1 ∂P ∂
+ + (cos ϕQ) = 0
∂t R cos ϕ ∂ψ ∂ϕ
∂P gh ∂ζ
+ − fQ = 0 (1)
∂t R cos ϕ ∂ψ
∂Q gh ∂ζ
+ + fP = 0
∂t R ∂ϕ
where ζ is the free surface elevation, (ψ, ϕ) measures the Longitude and Latitude
of the Earth; R is the Earth radius; P and Q are the volume fluxes (P = hu
and Q = hv with u and v being the depth-averaged velocities in the Longitude
and Latitude directions, respectively), h is the water depth and f represents the
Coriolis force coefficient. When the transient seafloor motions are considered, the
water depth h is also a function of time. An additional term, −∂h/∂t, needs to be
added to the right-hand-side of the continuity equation in (1).
As shown in Fig. 3, two sub-regions with a finer grid resolution (Layer 2) are
imbedded inside Layer 1. One of the Layer 2 regions covers Trincomalee Bay,
Fig. 3. Bathymetry and topography in Layer 1 (in meters). The locations of Layer 2 are also
indicated.

Fig. 4. Bathymetry and topography in Layer 2 (in meters) near the coast of Trincomalee,
Sri Lanka. The location of the Layer 3 region is also indicated.
Sri Lanka and the other covers Northern Banda Aceh, Indonesia. In the Trinco-
malee Bay region, the Layer 2 (see Fig. 4) ranges from 81.017◦E to 82.480◦E in
Longitude and from 8.017◦ N to 8.980◦N in Latitude, with a grid size of 0.2 minutes
(∼ 367 m). The water depth in this region varies from 50 m near shore to 3 km at
the edge of the continental shelf. The wavelength in this region is about 20 kilome-
ters (Wang and Liu, 2006). Thus, the linear shallow water equations are still valid
for most part of the region.
The second targeted coastal region of interest is in the vicinity of Northern
Banda Aceh, Indonesia. A Layer 2 region with a finer grid resolution is installed
there, ranging from 94.327◦E to 95.473◦E in the longitudinal direction and from
5.0267◦N to 5.7733◦N in the latitudinal direction, with a grid size of 0.2 minutes
(∼367 m) (see Fig. 5). In the same figure, the bathymetric and topographical vari-
ation along the transect with Latitude = 5.47◦N is also shown.
From Figs. 5 and 6, it is clear that in order to understand the inundation pro-
cesses in Trincomalee and Northern Banda Aceh, finer grid resolutions are necessary.
Consequently, a Layer 3 region is put in place within each Layer 2 region. As shown
in Figs. 4 and 6, the Layer 3 inside the Trincomalee Bay covers the Trincomalee
Harbor, Koddiyar Bay and Trincomalee Bay, ranging from 81.165◦E to 81.401◦E in
Longitude and from 8.432◦N to 8.601◦ N in Latitude, with a grid size of 45.88 m (or
0.025 minutes). For the same reason a Layer 3 region is introduced in the vicinity of
Lhoknga and Banda Aceh, with a grid size of 36.7 meters. As shown in Fig. 7, the
Layer 3 is defined as from 95.1017◦E to 95.4180◦E in Longitude and from 5.3517◦N
to 5.6380◦N in Latitude.
In the inundation areas (Layer 3) the water depth becomes very small and
approaches zero at the shoreline. The nonlinearity, i.e. wave amplitude to depth
ratio, can become significant. On the other hand, because of the shallowness of

Fig. 5. The upper panel shows the bathymetry and topography in Layer 2 (in meters) near the
coast of Northern Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The lower panel shows the bathymetric and topograph-
ical variation along a transect with Latitude = 5.47◦ N. The location of the Layer 3 region is also
shown in the upper panel.
the water, the frequency dispersion effects, which are measured by the depth to
wavelength ratio, can still be negligible. Therefore, the process of tsunami inunda-
tion and overland flows can be adequately described by the nonlinear shallow water
wave theory with bottom frictional terms included. Furthermore, since the size of
Layer 3 is usually not very large, the Coriolis force and the earth curvature effects
can be ignored. The nonlinear shallow-water equations in the Cartesian coordinate
system are employed and can be expressed as:
∂ζ ∂P ∂Q
+ + =0
∂t ∂x ∂y

∂P ∂ P2PQ ∂
∂ζ τx H
+ +
+ gH + =0 (2)
∂t ∂x H H ∂y
∂x ρ

∂Q ∂ PQ ∂ Q2 ∂ζ τy H
+ + + gH + =0
∂t ∂x H ∂y H ∂y ρ

Fig. 6. Bathymetry and topography in Layer 3 of the Trincomalee region.
Fig. 7. Bathymetry and topography in Layer 3 of the Banda Aceh region.
where τx and τy are the bottom shear stress in x- (pointing to the east) and y-
(pointing to the north) directions, respectively. The bottom shear stress terms are
modeled by using the Manning’s formula as
ρgn2 2 1/2
τx = 7/3
P P + Q2
H (3)
ρgn2 1/2
τy = 7/3 Q P 2 + Q2
H
where n is the Manning’s relative roughness coefficient, which parametrizes the land
surface conditions. In this paper we present simulations with n = 0 and n = 0.02,
which is a typical value used for open channel flows over hard sand or viscous clay
surface. It is clear that the bottom friction modeling is empirical and need to be
improved.
4. Numerical Results
4.1. Tsunami propagation
Although the focus of this paper is on the coastal effects, some of the important
tsunami characteristics in deep ocean are briefly discussed here. The numerical
results for the tsunami propagation in the Indian Ocean have been favorably com-
pared with the Satellite data (Wang and Liu, 2006) and will not be repeated here.
In Fig. 8, we demonstrate the time histories of free surface displacements at three
different stations to the west of the source region. Overall the shape of the lead-
ing wave represents an N -wave being led by an elevated wave. Using the upward
zero-crossing method, the leading wave has a wave period of almost one hour with
a wave height (crest to trough) of about 0.8 m. As compared to the initial wave
height (3.6 m maximum) the wave heights in the deep ocean have reduced quite
significantly due to the spreading and the increase of water depth (from about 1 km
in the source region to 3 to 4 km in the deep ocean) as tsunamis propagate away
from the source region.
In Fig. 9, tsunami surface profiles along Latitude = 6.63◦ N at different times
clearly show the evolution of tsunami wave heights and wave forms, traveling in
different regions. Because of the difference in water depth, the wave speed for the
west-bound leading wave is noticeably faster than that of the east-bound leading
wave. Furthermore, the east-bound leading wave is a depression wave, while the
west-bound waves are led by an elevated wave. Since Banda Aceh is only about
100 km away from the epicenter, immediately after the earthquake, the sea surface
is depressed about 0.3 to 0.7 m below the still sea level along the shoreline of Banda
Aceh. Initially, the sea surface withdrew for 30 to 35 minutes before the elevated
wave attacked the North-western shoreline of Banda Aceh.
At about 1 hour 35 minutes after the main shock, the leading tsunami waves
arrive at the shoreline of Sri Lanka. On the continental shelf the leading tsunami
wave has a wavelength of 20 km with a wave height of 2 ∼ 2.5 m (Fig. 10). Although
the wave heights have grown significantly, the wave slope is still very small (see the
sub-windows in Fig. 9). Because of the orientation of the fault line, significant
amount of tsunami wave energy travels to the southwest and does not directly
strike Sri Lanka (see Fig. 10).
4.2. Tsunami runup and inundation in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

After the earthquake, a field survey was performed along the east coast of Sri Lanka
(Liu et al., 2005). Tsunami wave heights were obtained at several locations around

Fig. 8. Time histories of free surface elevations at three different locations in the Indian Ocean.
the Trincomalee Bay. The survey locations are marked by dark gray dots in Fig. 11.
The calculated tsunami heights with and without including the bottom frictional
effects at the survey locations are compared with the measurements. Except at the
location 3 where no tsunami runup was obtained by the numerical simulation, prob-
ably due to the inaccuracy of topographical data, the overall agreement between the
numerical results and field survey data is reasonable (Fig. 12). It is surprising that

Fig. 9. Snapshots of tsunami surface profiles along Latitude = 6.63◦ N.
the calculated wave heights as well as the inundation zones are lower and smaller
when the bottom friction is included. In Fig. 11, numerical results indicate that
two most affected areas are Kinniya (survey location 5 and 6) and Mutur (survey
location 7). This is also in agreement with the report by the Urban Development
Authority (UDA), Sri Lanka for most damaged areas in Sri Lanka. For most of area,
there is only minor difference in the predicted inundation areas with and without
considering the bottom friction. However, in Mutur where the largest inundation
occurs, the bottom friction reduces the maximum inundation distance to almost
half of that without considering bottom friction (Fig. 11).
4.3. Tsunami runup and inundation in Banda Aceh

The calculated inundation area in Banda Aceh is shown in Fig. 13. In the upper
panel, the flooded area is marked in gray with the bottom friction considered, the
dark gray line denotes the inundation line without considering the bottom friction,
the unaffected region is rendered in light gray and the white color denotes ocean
water. In the lower panel, the calculated inundation results are overlaid with a
satellite image taken by QUICKBIRD.
In the satellite image, the dark gray color (vegetation) represents areas not
affected by the tsunami and the area shaded by semi-transparent dark gray color
suggests the flooded areas. Overall the numerical prediction matches very well with

Fig. 10. Snapshots of tsunami wave field (color scale is in meter) at 1 hour (upper panel) and 2
hours (lower panel) after the main shock. The leading west-bound wave is an elevated wave, while
the leading east-bound wave is a depression wave.

Fig. 11. Tsunami inundation in Trincomalee area. The black line indicates the original shoreline
before the tsunami and the dark gray line denotes the calculated inundation line. The numerical
numbers denote the locations of tsunami survey.
Fig. 12. Comparisons between survey data and numerical simulation results.
the satellite observation in the neighborhood of Lhoknga and the western part of
Banda Aceh. However, in the region south to Ulee Lheue, the simulation results
appear to overestimate the inundation area when the bottom friction is not con-
sidered. On the other hand, the results with the bottom friction underestimate the

Fig. 13. Calculated inundation areas (upper panel) in Banda Aceh. On the lower panel a satellite
image is overlaid on the numerical results.
inundation area. The topography is relatively flat and the tsunami traveled over a
longer distance in a relative shallower water depth.
The tsunami wave heights, calculated in Banda Aceh, are also compared with
the field data surveyed by two Japan research groups (Tsuji et al. in January of 2005
and Shibayama et al. in February of 2005). There are roughly 100 measurements
within the simulated region. The comparisons between field survey data and the
numerical results on the west coast and northern coast of Banda Aceh are shown in
Figs. 14 and 15, respectively. In Figs. 14 and 15, the black bars indicate the survey
data by Shibayama et al. (locations are marked by “+”) and the gray bars give the
field measurements by Tsuji et al. (whose survey locations are labeled by gray dots).
We remark that several surveyed locations are actually not in the flooded region
predicted by the numerical simulations and therefore, strictly speaking, no tsunami
wave height is predicted at those surveyed locations. However, as an indicator,
numerical results for wave height closest to these survey locations are reported (in
black “o”).
On the west coast of Banda Aceh, the maximum heights of the tsunami were
measured between Lhoknga and Leupung, reaching more than 30 meters. Our
numerical simulation without considering the bottom frictional effects gives a max-
imum wave height of 24 meters in this region. Generally speaking, on the coasts
near Lhoknga and Leupung, numerical results match very well with the field survey
data. However, farther north to Lhoknga, the numerical results, in general, reduce
to almost one-half of the measurements except in middle regions between Lhoknga
and Lampuuk. However, with the bottom friction, the tsunami wave heights are
decreased significantly.
Along the northern coast of Banda Aceh, the numerical model without bottom
friction predicts 4 m to 7 m tsunami heights at surveyed locations, compared to 6 m
to 12 m in the survey measurements. The agreement between numerical results and
field data appears to be better along the central part of Banda Aceh (see Fig. 15).
However, on the coast near Ulee Lheue, the numerical result is only one-half of
the measured data. Generally, both the field measurements and numerical results
indicate that the tsunami wave heights on the northern coast of Banda Aceh are
less than half of those along the west coast. This may be due to the existence of the
archipelago and several small islands which sheltered a significant part of tsunami
energy from reaching the northern coast. When the bottom friction is included in
the model, the wave height predictions are reduced.
Generally speaking, numerical simulations underestimate tsunami heights in
comparison to the field surveyed data. Although the uncertainties in the field
surveyed data are large and are difficult to quantify, many issues concerning
input information for the numerical model require attention and improvement. For
instance the present bottom friction model is very primitive and the empirical coef-
ficient used in the frictional model need to be justified fro the field conditions.
Finally, the nearshore bathymetry and topography plays important role in obtain-
ing accurate results for the runup and inundation. Unfortunately, the accuracy

Fig. 14. Tsunami height comparisons on the west coast of Banda Aceh (upper panel: with bottom
friction; lower panel: without bottom friction).

Fig. 15. Tsunami height comparisons on the north coast of Banda Aceh (upper 2 panels: with
bottom friction; lower 2 panels: without bottom friction).
of bathymetry data and topography data in the studied regions is not necessar-
ily high.
4.4. Sediment transport index

Tsunami sediment deposits have been observed in many recent field surveys (Liu
et al., 2005). Dated tsunami sediment deposits are being used to estimate the mag-
nitudes of ancient tsunamis (Atwater, 1987). However, the correlations between the
thickness and the grain size distribution of tsunami deposits and the overland flow
velocity have not been well established. In this section, we shall examine a key
parameter, which represents the sediment transport potential. Using the overland
flow results for Trincomalee and Banda Aceh, we will also explore and examine the
difficulties in determining precisely the distribution of tsunami deposits.
It is well known that the incipient of sediment movement in river flow is primarily
driven by the shear stress applied on a bed of sand grains. Defining the Shields
parameter as (Bagnold, 1963):
τb
θ= , (4)
(ρs − ρ)gds

where τb = τx2 + τy2 denotes the magnitude of bottom shear stress, which can be
evaluated by the Manning’s formula, (3) in the present model; ρs stands for the
density of sand (2,650 kg/m3 for quartz) and ρ is the density of water (1000 kg/m3 );
g is the acceleration of gravity (9.81 kg/m2 ) and ds stands for the typical diameter
of sand. Bagnold (1963) suggested that the critical Shields parameter value for the
incipient motion of sand grains is θc ≈ 0.06. Therefore, the Shields parameter can
be employed as a useful index for evaluating the potential for sediment movements
during a tsunami event.
Based on the simulated results, the temporal and spatial distribution of the
Shields parameter can be calculated in Trincomalee Bay and Banda Aceh. For
simplicity and for illustration purpose only, the sand grain diameter is assumed
to be uniform and takes the value of ds = 0.5 mm everywhere in the Layer 3
regions, where the Manning’s n has also been assumed to be 0.02. Implicitly, we
have assumed that an infinite amount of sand sources is available in the Layer 3
regions. Snapshots of the Shields parameter in Trincomalee Bay and Banda Aceh
are shown in Figs. 16 and 17, respectively. In the same figures, the directions of
bottom shear stress are also indicated, which are the same as the directions of the
depth-averaged currents associated with the tsunamis. The complexity of the flow
patterns in both regions is evident. Overall, the potential for sediment mobility is
much higher in Banda Aceh region, because the wave amplitudes and the currents
are stronger. Figure 17 shows that as the leading tsunami wave approaching Banda
Aceh, sediment transport could be initialized in a large region. However, since the
seafloor soil properties in both regions have not been investigated, the availability
of sediments is not known.

Fig. 16. Snapshots of the Shields parameter around Trincomalee bay. The gray color denotes
regions, where θ > 0.06. The arrows show the directions of bottom shear stress (not in scale). The
clock indicated the time after the earthquake.
By closely examining the time histories of Shields parameter in Trincomalee

and Banda Aceh, it is found that during both the runup and rundown phases, the
bottom stresses are strong enough to mobilize sediment. However, the duration of
the rundown phase (when the overland flow is moving in the offshore direction) is
much longer than that of the runup phase, e.g., 16 min versus 10 min in Trincomalee
and 40 min versus 20 min in Banda Aceh. To illustrate this feature more clearly,
the time histories of θ averaged over an 800 m-by-800 m window in Lampuuk are
shown in Fig. 18. The negative θ values correspond to the rundown phases. These
observations imply that the seaward sediment transport might be stronger that the
onshore sediment transport, which might result in severe coastal erosion.
4.5. Tsunami force index

For the purpose of tsunami hazard assessment and future coastal zone planning,
it would be useful to provide a quantitative indicator for the potential tsunami
force acting on a coastal structure. Since it is almost impossible and impractical to
develop such an indicator for all different types of buildings and infrastructures, as
a first attempt we shall only consider the building as a circular cylinder with a unit

Fig. 17. Snapshots of the Shields parameter around Banda Aceh. The gray color denotes regions,
where θ > 0.06. The arrows show the directions of bottom shear stress (not in scale). The clock
indicates the time after the earthquake.
diameter. During the runup and run down processes, the total horizontal force can
be approximately calculated by the Morrison’s formula as
∂u 1
F = FI + Fd = Cm ρAh + Cd ρDh|u|u, (5)
∂t 2
where the first term represents the inertia force and the second term the drag force,
Cd and Cm stand for the drag coefficient and mass coefficient, respectively, A is the
cross-sectional area of the cylinder and D is the diameter of the cylinder.
The relative importance of the inertia force and the drag force can be esti-
mated as:

FI Cm D h
O =O , (6)
Fd Cd λ a
where λ denotes the characteristic wavelength and a the characteristic tsunami

wave height. In the inundation zone, the tsunami wave height is in the same order

Fig. 18. Time history of the averaged Shields parameter θ near Lampuuk. The location is shown
in the upper panel. The positive value represents the flow which is in the onshore direction and
negative value the offshore direction.
of magnitude as the characteristic water depth, h. For the 2004 Indian tsunamis,
the wave period is typically 20 to 30 minutes and hence, in a water depth of h = 1 m
the corresponding wavelength is roughly in the order of magnitude of λ ≈ 3.6 km,
which is several order of magnitude larger than the typical size of a building, D.
Consequently, the inertia force can be neglected in favor of the drag force, i.e.
1
F ≈ Fd = Cd ρD|u|[P eˆx + Qeˆy ], (7)
2
where P and Q are volume flux in x (eastward) and y (northward) direction, respec-
tively. For linear waves, reasonable value for drag coefficient is 1.0 ∼ 1.4. In this
study, Cd = 1.0 is adopted. The maximum drag forces on the unit pile (D = 1 m)
in Trincomalee and Banda Aceh are shown in Fig. 19.
In Banda Aceh, the drag force acting on the unit pile in most of flooded areas
is in the order of magnitude of 105 N ewton (about 10 tons). In some areas, e.g.
Ulee Lheue and Lampuuk, the maximum force increases to the order of magnitude
of 106 N . These large wave forces could and have caused severe damage on wooden
and un-enforced concrete buildings. In contrast, the maximum drag force around
Trincomalee Bay is much smaller, about the order of magnitude of 103 to 104 N
in Mutur and 105 N in Kinnya. This also explains why damage in Kinnya is much
more serious than other regions around the Trincomalee Bay.
5. Concluding Remarks
By using available topography and bathymetry data, both runup and inundation
of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami were calculated in the vicinities of Trincomalee,
Sri Lanka and Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The numerical results compared reason-
ably well with the field survey data, satellite observation and the reported dam-
aged regions. This provides some confidence on both the tsunami simulation model
and the source region estimate. Based on the numerical simulations, it is clear
that nearshore bathymetry and topography plays an important role in determining
tsunami wave heights and inundation areas.
In Banda Aceh, both numerical results and field surveys show that the tsunami
heights in northern coast of Banda Aceh are only about half of those on the eastern
coast. This is because a series of islands northwest to Banda Aceh scattered a
significant amount of wave energy back to the open sea, allowing only a small part
of energy propagating into the northern coast of Banda Aceh. In Trincomalee the
submarine canon in the Trincomalee bay channeled tsunami energy into Mutur and
Kinniya, where severe damage occurred.
The bottom frictional effects are also studied. It is found that bottom friction
plays a significant role in determining the size of inundation area, especially in
regions where waves will travel a long distance over very shallow water region. To
have an accurate estimation of the inundation area and maximum tsunami wave
heights, it is essential to have highly resolved bathymetry and topography data. It
is also necessary to have accurate information on the physical characterization of
land surface condition.
Using the Shields parameter as an index for potential sediment transport,
numerical results show that if sediment is available in the nearshore regions, the

Fig. 19. Distribution of the maximum drag force index in Trincomalee bay (upper panel) and
Banda Aceh (lower panel). Arrows indicate the directions of the maximum drag force index (not in
scale) and the color scale gives the magnitude of maximum drag force (Newton) in the logarithmic
scale (base 10).
potential of sediment transport is very high around Banda Aceh, which can result
in significant erosions and deposits. In theory, once the volume flux, P and Q, and
the Shields parameter are calculated the morphological change due to sediment
transport can be estimated by a simple conservation of mass requirement for the
sediment in the water and sediment column,
∂h
+ ∇ · q = 0, (8)
∂t
where h is sea bottom/land elevation, q represents the sediment flux, including
the bed load and suspended load. Therefore, one needs to specify the relationship
between q , θ, P and Q. Furthermore, the morphological equation (8) needs to be

coupled with the tsunami simulation model, COMCOT.
Finally, a force index is introduced to estimate the potential tsunami force acting
on a vertical cylinder with unit diameter. This index can be very useful in coastal
zone planning and developing structural design guideline.
Acknowledgment
This research has been supported by National Science Foundation through grants
to Cornell University.
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Numerical Simulations of The 2004 Indian Ocean Xiaoming Wang

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September 21, 2007 16:47 WSPC/238-JET 00016

Journal of Earthquake and Tsunami, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2007) 273–297

NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF THE 2004 INDIAN OCEAN

XIAOMING WANG and PHILIP L.-F. LIU

274 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

In this paper, numerical simulations are performed to investigate tsunami inun-

importance of bottom friction eﬀects.

2. Tsunami Generation — Seaﬂoor Deformation

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 275

Fig. 1. The initial sea surface elevation.

3. Numerical Model for Tsunami Propagation and Coastal Eﬀects

276 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

Using a nested grid system, COMCOT is capable of simultaneously calculating

3.1. Grid setup

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 277

101.667◦E in Longitude and from −3.333◦S to 16.667◦N in Latitude, with a grid

278 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 279

280 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

Fig. 6. Bathymetry and topography in Layer 3 of the Trincomalee region.

Fig. 7. Bathymetry and topography in Layer 3 of the Banda Aceh region.

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 281

4.2. Tsunami runup and inundation in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

282 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 283

Fig. 9. Snapshots of tsunami surface proﬁles along Latitude = 6.63◦ N.

4.3. Tsunami runup and inundation in Banda Aceh

284 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 285

286 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 287

288 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 289

290 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

4.4. Sediment transport index

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 291

By closely examining the time histories of Shields parameter in Trincomalee

4.5. Tsunami force index

292 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

where λ denotes the characteristic wavelength and a the characteristic tsunami

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 293

294 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 295

296 X. Wang & P. L.-F. Liu

between q , θ, P and Q. Furthermore, the morphological equation (8) needs to be

Numerical Simulations of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunamis 297

Shibayama et al. (2005). Available at URL: http://www.drs.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/sumatra/

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between q , θ, P and Q. Furthermore, the morphological equation (8) needs to be