Simulation of the Propagation of Tsunamis in Coastal Regions by a Two-Dimensional Non-Hydrostatic Shallow Water Solver

During the last years, great effort has been addressed by several authors to simulate the propagation of solitary waves/ tsunamis, tides or surges, due to the tremendous damages and losses of human lives in the inundated rural and residential areas. Tsunamis are sea waves usually generated by undersea landslides and earthquakes. They can be regarded as long/solitary waves with small amplitude and long wavelength, travelling with high speed over long distances. Approaching the coast, their amplitude increases, becoming potentially destructive. The propagation of tsunami in coastal regions can be studied by investigating the shoaling and breaking of solitary waves over inclined bottoms [1]. Chanson [2] asserted that the front of tsunamis over dry plains becomes a shock wave, and presented a similarity between the propagation of the tsunamis over dry coastal areas and the classical dam-break problems. Generally, 3D simulations of the processes described as above, e.g., by RANS models [3], or Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics methods [4], or Volume of Fluids methods [5], require very high computational costs. For these reasons, a significant amount of literature based on depthintegrated equations has been published for simulations of long waves/tsunamis propagation. Generally, the two modeling approaches proposed in literature are the Boussinesq-Type Models (BTMs) and the Non-Hydrostatic Nonlinear Shallow Water Equations (NLSWEs) models.