Laboratory experiment on the influence of constraint conditions on landslide-generated waves

Abstract

The constraint conditions have a great influence on the geometry of reservoir landslides during mass movement and are one of the most important parameters for predicting landslide-generated waves. To explore the effects of constraint conditions on the characteristics of landslide-generated waves (such as wave height, amplitude and period), 54 sets of landslide-generated wave physical model experiments based on the orthogonal experimental design method were conducted in this paper. Furthermore, the wave characteristics under constrained and semiconstrained conditions were analysed using statistical methods. The results indicate that the wave period is basically unaffected by the constraint conditions, while the wave height and amplitude of the semiconstrained model are smaller than those of the constrained model, the initial wave height of the semiconstrained model is approximately 0.95 times higher than that of the constrained model, and the maximum amplitude of the semiconstrained model is approximately 0.9 times that of the constrained model. Therefore, it is safer to predict the initial wave height and maximum amplitude by using the geometric parameters before failure, although the geometry of the landslide has been greatly changed from its original state.This study can provide a theoretical basis for landslide-tsunamis prediction.

Keywords

• constraint condition
• wave period
• wave height
• wave amplitude
• landslide-generated wave