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Boulder dislodgement and transport by solitary waves: Insights from three‐dimensional numerical simulations
Author(s) -
Zainali Amir,
Weiss Robert
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl063712
Subject(s) - froude number , geology , storm , scale (ratio) , logarithm , mechanics , meteorology , physics , mathematics , mathematical analysis , oceanography , breakup , quantum mechanics
The analysis of boulder motion and dislodgement provides important insights into the physics of the causative processes, i.e., whether or not a boulder was moved during a storm or tsunami and the magnitude of the respective event. Previous studies were mainly based on simplified models and threshold considerations. We employ three‐dimensional numerical simulation of the hydrodynamics coupled with rigid body dynamics to study boulder dislodgement and transport by solitary waves. We explore the effects of three important nondimensional parameters on the boulder transport problem, the Froude number F r , the aspect ratio in logarithmic scale α , and the submergence factor, β . Our results indicate that boulder motion is complex, and small changes in one of the nondimensional parameters result in significantly different behavior during the transport process and the final resting place of boulders. More studies are needed to determine the role of boulders in tsunami and storm hazard assessments.