Optical Measurements of Tsunami Inundation and Debris Movement in a Laboratory Wave Basin

Experiments were conducted in the Directional Wave Basin (DWB) at the O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University. The basin had a rectangular shape with the dimensions of 48.8 m long, 26.5 m wide and 2.1 m high. A segmented piston-type wave-maker with a maximum stroke of 2.1 m and maximum velocity of 2.0 m/s was employed to generate the long waves. The bathymetry was constructed of smooth concrete with a float finish so that the roughness height is estimated in the range of 0.1-0.3 mm. The flat test section represented part of a shipping container yard at a port facility with a geometric scale of approximately 1:20. Seven model configurations were tested based on three main characteristics, including the number of boxes, the induced rotation, and the segmentation of groups. The debris specimens were constructed from 12.7 mm thick plywood. Each box had a nominal footprint of 60 cm by 60 cm and is nominally 40 cm tall. The sides of boxes were painted blue with black number on one side for unique identification and a black scale to facilitate run-up observations via webcam. An image processing technique was developed for measuring the position and orientation of multiple debris specimens using a unique color scheme for the box lids. The database consisted of separate files for each configuration and corresponding trials, including time, location, velocities, and orientation for individual boxes and the centroid.