Application of Numerical Techniques to Tsunami Simulation

Abstract

This study shows the practical application of numerical techniques for tsunami simulation. Our techniques were tested against a model problem of flow with linear bottom friction over a parabolic bottom topography. A governing system of partial differential equations was spatially discretized over a triangular mesh. Standard ODE solvers were applied to the resultant system of ordinary differential equations for the horizontal fluxes and the wave height. At each time step, each node was tested to determine whether it was “wet” or “dry”, according to criteria on the total depth. An initial displacement was set according to source fault plane generated by other authors. Our techniques were applied to the Mentawai 2010 tsunami simulation and the Indian Ocean 2004 tsunami simulation. Keywords— Numerical techniques, parabolic bottom topography, standard ODE solver, tsunami simulation.