In this study, a three-dimensional two-phase (air and water) numerical solver is applied to investigate free surface flows. The first component aims to improve the overall understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms that occur during the interaction between turbulent hydraulic bores and simple structures. Data collected during large-scale physical experiments based on generating dam-break waves in a horizontal rectangular channel is used for comparing to the numerical results. An extensive sensitivity analysis on numerical parameters including spatial discretization and turbulence models is presented. Quantitative comparisons of numerical and experimental time series of water surface elevations, pressure, and net streamwise force exerted on the structure are used to validate the model. In the in-depth analysis, it is demonstrated that the model is able to simulate the pertinent aspects of the flow behaviour that occur during the interaction with good agreement. The numerical impulsive force generated at initial impact shows excellent agreement with the experimental results, particularly for the larger magnitudes bores considered. Since the numerical model treats the air as an incompressible media, the level of agreement observed between the experimental and numerical results suggests that the compressibility of the air in the leading edge of the bore during the physical testing had no significant effect on the measured impulsive force. The two-phase model was also able to capture the occurrence of a second transient spike in the force exerted on the structure when the initial runup collapsed back onto the incoming flow, trapping a pocket of air in the process. The model was further applied to investigate the effect of an initially quiescent layer of water in the downstream channel section on bore propagation characteristics and the subsequent interaction with the structure. It is demonstrated that for small nonzero values of initial downstream depth a substantial increase in bore depth occurs. However, further increases in the downstream depth did not appear have any significant effects. For the greatest downstream depth simulated, a considerable reduction in the hydrodynamic force is observed as a result of a more rapid closing of the wake that develops on the leeside of the structure. The second component of the study applies the same numerical solver to investigate a novel long wave generation technique for producing laboratory-scale tsunami waves. The concept is based on removing the air from the inside of a tank with a submerged outlet at the upstream end of the basin and releasing the water in a controlled manner. A similar procedure as described above was used to calibrate the numerical parameters to experimentally-measured wave heights and periods. To model the influence of the pneumatic valves mounted on top of the upstream chamber, time-varying pressure boundary conditions are developed to regulate and control the pressure inside the tank. Quantitative and qualitative comparisons of the numerical and experimental results show good agreement and a high potential for the solver to be used for similar investigations. An analysis is performed to improve the existing understanding of the wave formation process. The model is also applied to modify test configurations that influence the waveform for which the results may be used to aid in making operating decisions for future tests or in the design of similar wave generating devices.

Natural disasters usually occur without any warning. They can leave trail of destruction and cause much tragedy. We are at a time when we witness fast technological advances; hence, we need to apply the force of scientific advancements to decrease economic losses and the number of human deaths. Tsunami is one of the extreme environmental events that leaves nothing but a path of death and destruction, and as a result, it is essential to understand this phenomenon and identify the mitigation strategies. Several mitigation strategies have been proposed so far; however, more investigations are still required to achieve an acceptable solution. Researchers around the world are studying different aspects of this phenomenon. One of the proposed solutions that has received much attention is designing tsunami-resistant structures which can withstand the force of a tsunami bore. Various studies have been done so far to understand the base shear force of tsunami bore on structures. The focus of this thesis is to improve and better understand the characteristics of the tsunami base shear forces on structures. Hence, in this thesis, two numerical studies were proposed and performed with the main goal of estimating the total tsunami forces on structure under two different conditions. Those include structures with various cross sections, as well as positioning a mitigation wall at an appropriate location relative to the structure. The first study focused on developing a numerical model to study the relationship between tsunami forces and the geometry of the structure. The main goal of this study was to define a numerical model capable of simulating this case precisely. To ensure the accuracy of the model, a comparison was carried out between the results of the numerical model and experimental test performed at the NRC-CHC (National Research Council- Canadian Hydraulics Center) laboratory in Ottawa, Canada and Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium, which revealed a very good agreement between the results of the experimental test and numerical model. Further, the validated model was applied to investigate the tsunami force on structures with various cross sections. The second study focus was on developing a numerical model for understanding the role of mitigation wall (a novel idea proposed as a mitigation strategy by the second author of technical paper 2) on reducing the exerted force of tsunami on structures. After developing various models and applying several turbulence models, a valuable result was obtained which demonstrated that a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model seems to be an excellent approach for predicting the tsunami forces on the structure with a mitigation wall in the direction of the flow. The results of this study will be used to better estimate the tsunami forces exerted on coastal structures which will light the path to the main goal of designing tsunami resistant-structures.

Tsunamis have caused severe damage to coastal communities and associated infrastructure over the past decades. Thus, researchers deemed necessary to investigate and better understand the mechanisms loading associated with tsunami waves and the inundation caused by them. Over the past few years, researchers have demonstrated that the dam-break waves are hydrodynamically similar to the onshore propagation of tsunami inundation; hence, dam-break waves are now widely used to investigate tsunami impacts. Various studies related to dam-break waves have been conducted to investigate their characteristics: the kinematic behavior, including free surface profiles, wave height, wave front velocity, and dynamics including the impact pressure and associated force. Most dam-break experiments have been conducted on a horizontal bed, in a tank or a flume, while few studies had employed sloped surfaces. However, natural and artificial beaches usually have slopes ranging from 0-degrees to 20-degrees (or more). In this study, downstream slopes are considered to investigate the influence of slope effects on the kinematic behaviors and associated hydrodynamic loadings due to dam-break waves. The Volume of Fluid method (VOF) code of the OpenFOAM and the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code of the DualSPHysics were applied to reproduce the results of physical tests and provide a comparison with the experimental results. First, existing boundary treatment methods in the SPH were studied and compared to a self-developed code in order to select the best performing method by checking the flow behaviors. In the second part of the thesis, experimental investigation of the impact of dam-break induced surges over a horizontal bed against a vertical wall was conducted by analysing the rapidly varying correlation between the wave height and the associated dynamic pressure. In the third part of this study, three different downstream slopes were added in the experimental setup to investigate the beach effects on the kinematics of dam-break flow, including the free surface profiles, wave height, wave front location and its velocity. In the last part, the impact dynamic pressure on the vertical straight wall from the horizontal and sloped cases were captured to investigate the slope effects on the hydrodynamic loading. The impact force integrated from the dynamic pressure was determined with a simplified calculation formula. In addition, the physical experiments were also reproduced by the numerical models of OpenFOAM and DualSPHysics to compare and investigate their accuracy and to analyze the differences between the physical tests and numerical simulations.

The main objective of this study was to investigate and quantify the impact of extreme hydrodynamic forces, similar to those generated by tsunami-induced inundation, on structural elements. As part of a comprehensive experimental program and analytical study, pressures, base shear forces, and base overturning moments generated by hydraulic bores on structural models of various shapes were studied. In addition, the impact force induced by waterborne wooden debris of different shapes and masses on the structural models was also investigated. Two structural models, one with circular and the other with square cross-section, were installed individually downstream of a dam-break wave in a high-discharge flume. Three impounding water heights (550, 850 and 1150 mm) were used to produce dam-break waves, which have been shown to be analogous to tsunami-induced coastal inundation in the form of highly turbulent hydraulic bores. Time-history responses of the structural models were recorded, including: pressures, base shear forces, base overturning moments, lateral displacements, and accelerations. In addition, the flow depth-time histories were recorded at various locations along the length of the flume. Regular and high-speed video cameras were used to monitor the bore-structure interaction. The effect of initial flume bed condition (“wet” or “dry” bed) on the forces and pressures exerted on the structural models were also investigated. Moreover, the vertical distribution of pressure around the models was captured. Simple low-height walls with various geometries were installed upstream from the structural models to investigate their efficiency as tsunami mitigation measures. The experimentally recorded data were compared with those estimated from currently available formulations. The results and analysis of the simulated tsunami-induced bore presented in this study will be of significant use to better estimate forces exerted on structures by tsunami-induced turbulent bores. It is expected that this work will contribute to the new ASCE7 Chapter 6 - Tsunami Loads and Effects in which two of this author’s academic supervisors, Drs. Ioan Nistor and Dan Palermo, are members.

The diploma thesis is focused on a quantification of hydrodynamic load of overflowed bridge deck. Solution was pursued by using two–dimensional numerical simulation of open channel flow in vertical plane created in ANSYS 15.0 software (modules: Workbench, Design Modeler, Meshing, Fluent). Values of drag force, lift force, moment, drag coefficient, lift coefficient and moment coefficient is result of computation. Various types of bridge decks were tested in relation to the degree of inundation (inundation ratio) and flow velocity.The thesis provides comparison of numerical simulation with physical experimental testing and result published in accessible resources.

The subjekt of this diploma thesis is a quantification of hydrodynamic load of the overflow bridge deck using numerical simulations. The simulation was performe for eight different discharges, which correspond to different degrees of inundation of the bridge deck using different turbulent models in Flow-3D software. The result of the calculation are the values of the hydrodynamic load– the horizontal force, the vertical force and the moment acting on the bridge deck. Furthermore, drag coefficient, lift coefficient and moment coefficient were quantified. Finally, the results of turbulent models were compared with each other and with result of physical experimental testing.