Tsunami inundation forces on coastal buildings – effects of building layout

A simplified experimental method using sliding buildings has been coupled with a unique pneumatic Tsunami Simulator (TS) to investigate the influence of blockage ratio and building position on tsunami loading on sets of idealised buildings. The TS generates the full duration of the 1:50 scale tsunami waves, allowing for the first time the transient effects of the full tsunami wave to be investigated. The simplified sliding building technique allows the resultant horizontal force acting on a building, or array of buildings to be assessed quickly, identifying general trends and patterns before more complicated and time-consuming measurement techniques are used. This paper presents the influence of blockage ratio, the interaction between the first and second row of buildings in relation to the resultant horizontal force acting on the building and the influence of multiple rows of buildings on the first and last rows.