ABSTRACT
The paper reports some recent research advances on tsunami-seabed-structure interaction following the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami, Japan. It presents and discusses a comparison of utilising a geotechnical centrifuge and a large-scale hydro flume for the modelling of tsunami-seabed-structure interaction. The similitudes for laminar and turbulent seepage flows in a geo-centrifuge are discussed, showing that the viscous scaling for studying wave-soil interaction problems can be replaced by the similitude for turbulent seepage flow in studying the stability of rubble foundations under tsunami. Notably, both geo-centrifuge and large-scale flume experiments proved to be consistent with each other, based on the role of tsunami-induced seepage. The paper also highlights the results from our recent experiments in which a new tsunami overflow-seepage-coupled centrifuge system developed was applied to investigate the concurrent processes of the instability involving the scour, flow of the foundation, and the failure of caisson breakwaters, elucidating the role of overflow and seepage coupling.
