Buffer blocks as wave energy dissipators (BB-WEnDis)

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Holger Schüttrumpf
• Subject Area: Geotechnics, Hydraulic Engineering
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 453313678

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.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: India
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Venkatachalam Sriram
• International Co-Applicant: Professor Dr. Vallam Sundar