Protecting infrastructure against flow-entrained debris - a new approach

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Extreme events such as hurricane- and tsunami-induced coastal inundation or inland flash floods have caused wide-spread destruction and claimed thousands of lives while impacting communities located in their path. The Tohoku Tsunami 2011 in Japan and Hurricane Katrina 2005 in the US are examples of such devastating events. Nowadays, warning and evacuation measures rely heavily on accurately forecasting site-specific hazard potential implications at a specific site. The inability to predict the effects of debris impacts and loading on structures remains one of the unsolved problems in hydraulic engineering. The main goals of the current research program are to investigate the mechanisms of debris motion, debris damming and debris impacts on structures and to contribute to the development of new and reliable design standards. Research ideas proposed herein are direct results of observations and findings stemming from field investigations as well as of the criticism and the lack of clarity/validation of the provisions of the current design guidelines and standards with respect to debris motion and impact. The long-term goal is to incorporate the new concepts, methods, and tools developed from this research into the quantification of debris loads and design demand parameters that can be used to improve design guidelines for infrastructure located in flood-prone areas. Additional funding from other grants and unique experimental facilities in Canada (Univ. of Ottawa, Hannover Coastal Research Center-Germany and Waseda Univ.-Japan) will be used to support this research program, which is anticipated to be pursued over the duration of the next decade by the applicant. The results of this research program, one of the very few in the world, will ultimately lead to the development of reliable design guidelines and tools that will be used by engineers and coastal zone managers and planners to properly design coastal and hydraulic infrastructure located in flood-prone areas. Expected Impact This research program is expected to be a step-changing development which will dramatically increase the accuracy of tools and models predicting extreme hydrodynamic and debris loading on structures by incorporating the probabilistic behavior of debris entrained in extreme flows. Pushing the current limits of experimental hydraulics presents great potential to significantly advance the way engineers design critical infrastructure to save lives and protect economic assets when natural hazards occur. The applicant's research work from the previous Discovery grant has been incorporated in the new ASCE7 Chapter 6 design standard for tsunami resistant structures - it is expected that the results of this proposed research program will become valuable additions to these continuously-evolving standards. Finally, this research will result in the training of 3 PhD, 2 MSc and 3 BEng students, who will acquire highly desired, advanced skills in hydraulic and coastal engineering.