Pneumatic long-wave generation of tsunami-length waveforms and their runup

An experimental study is conducted using a pneumatic long-wave generator (also known as a Tsunami Generator). Scaled tsunami waveforms are produced with periods in the range of 5–230 s and wave amplitudes between 0.03 and 0.14 m in water depths of 0.7–1.0 m. Using Froude similitude in scaling, at scale 1:50, these laboratory waves are theoretically dynamically equivalent to prototype tsunami waveforms with periods between 1 and 27 min and positive wave amplitude between 1.5 and 7.0 m in water depths of 50 m. The purpose of these tests is to demonstrate that the pneumatic method can generate long waves in relatively short flumes and to investigate their runup. Standard wave parameters, (free-surface, wave celerity and velocity profiles) are used to characterise the waveforms. It is shown that for the purpose of runup and onshore ingression, minimal interference from the re-reflected waves is observed.