Tsunami wave loading on a structural array partially sheltered by a seawall

In recent years tsunamis have been recognized as one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in the world, highlighted by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. These countries affected by tsunamis like Indonesia, Thailand and Japan usually arm their coast with sea walls to provide protection for coastal urban regions; however, surveys have found during both tsunami events, several sections of breached sea walls had led to extensive damage in those coastal regions (Dalrymple and Kriebel, 2005; Sato, 2015). Previous studies have examined the sheltering effect by macroroughness to individual structures, but limited knowledge is available on the sheltering and flow concentration effect by a partially standing wall to a field of structural array. The result from this experiment will serve to provide a better understanding on the tsunami loading variation induced by different length of partial seawalls, and help prepare more accurate hazard maps for tsunami events.