Buffer blocks as wave energy dissipators (BB-WEnDis)

沿海地区对移民和工业具有很高的吸引力。然而，沿海定居点面临极端波浪事件（海啸、风暴潮）的风险，这些事件可能造成毁灭性的破坏。特别是在海啸方面，许多受影响的海岸，特别是在结构薄弱地区，没有或只有不足的保护措施。通过拟议的项目，我们希望以所谓缓冲块的形式，为制定先进和易于实施的海啸缓解措施作出贡献。缓冲块是单一的、不相连的元素，已经成功地应用于风暴潮的环境中。它们的工作原理是基于单个缓冲块单元在电流中产生局部反射和湍流，从而通过耗散效应降低向陆波能量。这种缓冲块装置的巨大优势，例如与海啸墙相比，源于其对应用面积的要求低，施工成本低，对规划和制造人员的技术资格要求低。这允许在无法实施其他措施（如防护墙、红树林）的地区应用缓冲区。目前尚无关于缓冲块作为海啸缓解措施的适用性的研究。然而，为了验证该方法的适用性和确定单个块体元素的优化布置，还需要进行大量的基础研究。在这些过程中，将获得有关缓冲块的工作原理和决定性的水动力过程的必要知识。在提出的项目范围内，我们希望通过物理和数值研究来实现这一目标。计划的调查包括(i)数值初步调查，以确定有意义的缓冲块配置，然后（ii）在物理过程的物理模型实验中进行调查。在完成物理模型测试（三）后，将根据实验结果校准（一）中已经使用的数值模型，最后（四）应用于进一步的缓冲块配置的数值研究。最后，（ii）和（iv）的结果将用于(v)发展波浪参数、缓冲块配置和减缓效果之间的经验关系。拟议的项目将与印度理工学院马德拉斯（印度金奈）海洋工程系合作执行。由于印度和钦奈地区直接受到海啸风险的影响，因此目前有一个独特的机会，可以与亲身受海啸影响和经验丰富的研究人员直接接触，开展一个关于海啸减灾措施的研究项目。

Coastal areas have a high attraction for settlement and industry. However, coastal settlements are subjected to risks in the form of extreme wave events (tsunamis, storm surges), which can cause devastating damage. Particularly regarding tsunamis many affected coasts, especially in structurally weak regions, consist of no or only insufficient protective measures. With the proposed project we want to contribute to the development of advanced and easy implementable tsunami mitigation measures in the form of so-called Buffer Blocks. Buffer Blocks are single, unconnected, elements which are already successfully applied in the context of storm surges. Their operation principle is based on generating local reflections and turbulences in the current by the individual Buffer Block elements and thus reducing the land-inward wave energy by dissipation effects.Great advantages of the application of such Buffer Block installations, e.g. in comparison to tsunami walls, originate from their low demands on the area of application, low construction costs and low requirements on the technical qualification of the planning and manufacturing personnel. This allows to apply Buffer Blocks in areas where other measures (e.g. protective walls, mangrove forests) cannot be implemented.Currently no studies on the applicability of Buffer Blocks as a tsunami mitigation measure are available. However, for verifying the applicability and identifying optimized arrangements of the individual block elements, extensive basic research is necessary. In these, the necessary knowledge about the operation principle of the buffer blocks and the decisive hydrodynamic processes will be gained. Within the scope of the presented project, we would like to achieve this by means of physical and numerical studies. The planned investigations include (i) numerical preliminary investigations to identify meaningful buffer block configurations, which will then (ii) be investigated in physical model experiments with respect to the physical processes. After completion of the physical model tests (iii) the numerical models already used in (i) will be calibrated based on the experimental results and finally (iv) applied to investigate further Buffer Block configurations numerically. Finally, the results from (ii) and (iv) will be used (v) to develop empirical relationships between wave parameters, buffer block configurations and mitigation effects.The proposed project will be carried out in cooperation with the Department of Ocean Engineering of the IIT Madras (Chennai, India). As India and the Chennai region are directly affected by tsunami risks, the unique opportunity to conduct a research project on tsunami mitigation measures in direct contact with personally affected and experienced researchers, is present.