Numerical study of the stability of breakwater built on a sloped porous seabed under tsunami loading

Abstract Strong earthquake induced huge tsunami has occurred for three times in Pacific ocean in recent ten years; for example, the tsunami triggered by the Sumatra earthquake in 2004, Chile earthquake in 2010 and Tohoku earthquake (Japan) in 2011. Tsunami carrying huge energy always would bring high risks to the population living near to coastline. Breakwater is widely used to dissipate the wave energy, and protect coastline and ports. However, they are vulnerable when being attacked by tsunami wave. At present, the interaction mechanism between tsunami, breakwater and its seabed foundation is not fully understood. In this study, the dynamics and stability of a breakwater under the attacking of tsunami wave is investigated by adopting an integrated model PORO-WSSI 2D, in which the VARANS equation for wave motion, and the Biot’s dynamic equation for soil are used. Based on the numerical results, it is found that offshore breakwater interacts intensively with tsunami wave when it overtopping and overflowing over a breakwater. The impact force on the lateral side of breakwater applied by tsunami wave is huge. The shear failure is likely to occur in the seabed foundation of breakwater. The liquefaction is unlikely to occur due to the fact that there is basically no upward seepage force in seabed foundation in the process of tsunami wave passing through the breakwater.