Award Abstract # 1830056
Collaborative Research: Long (Tsunami) Waves in Riverine Estuaries

NSF Org: OCE
Division Of Ocean Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Initial Amendment Date: August 17, 2018
Latest Amendment Date: August 17, 2018
Award Number: 1830056
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Baris Uz
bmuz@nsf.gov
 (703)292-4557
OCE
 Division Of Ocean Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: October 1, 2018
End Date: September 30, 2023 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $397,314.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $397,314.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2018 = $397,314.00
History of Investigator:
  • Patrick Lynett (Principal Investigator)
    plynett@usc.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Southern California
3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3
LOS ANGELES
CA  US  90033
(213)740-7762
Sponsor Congressional District: 34
Primary Place of Performance: University of Southern California
3720 S. Flower St.
Los Angeles
CA  US  90089-0001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
37
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): G88KLJR3KYT5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): PREEVENTS - Prediction of and,
PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
Primary Program Source: 01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):
Program Element Code(s): 034Y00, 161000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Physics of tsunami propagation through riverine environments is not understood well enough to quantify the hazard with reasonable confidence. Unanticipated tsunami behavior in rivers can be harmful to riverine ports, marinas, bridges, and other critical infrastructure. Tsunami penetration in rivers is largely determined by the interaction among the flow components of the tsunami, river, and tide as well as by river morphology. This project utilizes analytical, laboratory experimental and numerical modeling work, designed to reveal the conditions that determine tsunami intrusion and propagation in rivers. The findings would enable accurate predictions of riverine tsunami transformation that is directly beneficial for public safety and for reducing infrastructure damage in areas along rivers. The research program emphasizes education for undergraduate and graduate students entering the fields of physical oceanography, applied mathematics and engineering. Because of the topic's appeal, the project will be effective in promoting students to further advance their education and research, thereby potentially leading them to academic careers. The laboratory experiments will yield the time evolution of complex long-wave patterns which will be packaged into visual material that could be used in classrooms from high school to college graduate levels; the material will emphasize the tight linkage between mathematics and oceanography. In addition, outcomes from laboratory experiments will yield solid benchmark cases for the validation of numerical codes for simulating tsunamis in rivers suitable for benchmark testing within the research community.

The research is designed to advance fundamentals in tsunami mechanics through the integration of theoretical approaches, numerical simulation, and laboratory experiments, all guided by field data analyses. It will bring insight into the mechanics associated with tsunami transition into a river, thereby leading us to identify which adjustments should be made to improve numerical representation of these critical tsunami processes. The specific questions to be addressed are: 1) how incident tsunamis transmit their energy through the river-mouth environment, 2) explaining why tsunami intrusion into a river results in a prolonged water accumulation, and 3) exploring interactions of tsunamis with river discharge. For analytical considerations, the large body of work from the tidal research community, will be utilized to determine which existing theoretical consideration for propagation of tides in rivers are applicable to tsunamis. Numerical simulations will be implemented for field-scale conditions, guided by 2011 Japan observations, to determine the physical parameters necessary to properly design the laboratory experiments. In addition, numerical experiments will be carried out in tandem with the controlled laboratory experiments to further explore the hydrodynamics associated with the tsunami transition from ocean to river. The laboratory research makes use of two different but complimentary experimental facilities: 1) a 2D flume designed to study the interaction between free surface waves, internal waves, and vertically sheared currents at the University of Southern California, and 2) a 3D wave basin designed for the high-precision study of nonlinear free surface wave transformation in the horizontal plane at Oregon State University.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Ayca, Aykut and Lynett, Patrick J. "Modeling the motion of large vessels due to tsunami-induced currents" Ocean Engineering , v.236 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2021.109487 Citation Details
Geertsema, M. and Menounos, B. and Bullard, G. and Carrivick, J. L. and Clague, J. J. and Dai, C. and Donati, D. and Ekstrom, G. and Jackson, J. M. and Lynett, P. and Pichierri, M. and Pon, A. and Shugar, D. H. and Stead, D. and Del Bel Belluz, J. and Fri "The 28 November 2020 Landslide, Tsunami, and Outburst Flood A Hazard Cascade Associated With Rapid Deglaciation at Elliot Creek, British Columbia, Canada" Geophysical Research Letters , v.49 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096716 Citation Details
Kalligeris, Nikos and Skanavis, Vassilios and Melis, Nikolaos S and Okal, Emile A and Dimitroulia, Aggeliki and Charalampakis, Marinos and Lynett, Patrick J and Synolakis, Costas E "The M w = 6.6 earthquake and tsunami of south Crete on 2020 May 2" Geophysical Journal International , v.230 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac052 Citation Details
Kirby, James T. and Grilli, Stephan T. and Horrillo, Juan and Liu, Philip L.-F. and Nicolsky, Dmitry and Abadie, Stephane and Ataie-Ashtiani, Behzad and Castro, Manuel J. and Clous, Lucie and Escalante, Cipriano and Fine, Isaac and González-Vida, José Man "Validation and inter-comparison of models for landslide tsunami generation" Ocean Modelling , v.170 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2021.101943 Citation Details
Maravelakis, Nikolaos and Kalligeris, Nikos and Lynett, Patrick J. and Skanavis, Vassilios L. and Synolakis, Costas E. "Wave overtopping due to harbour resonance" Coastal Engineering , v.169 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2021.103973 Citation Details
Son, Sangyoung and Lynett, Patrick "INTER-COUPLED TSUNAMI MODELLING THROUGH AN ABSORBING-GENERATING BOUNDARY" Coastal Engineering Proceedings , 2020 https://doi.org/10.9753/icce.v36v.currents.38 Citation Details
Tavakkol, Sasan and Son, Sangyoung and Lynett, Patrick "Adaptive third order Adams-Bashforth time integration for extended Boussinesq equations" Computer Physics Communications , v.265 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2021.108006 Citation Details

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