Tsunami Migration Forces Acting on Surface Pipeline Facilities and Countermeasures

A design standard which makes it possible to evaluate the effect of the tsunami migration force acting on surface pipeline facilities and to plan appropriate countermeasures has not yet been well developed due to a lack of relevant data concerning tsunamis. The most common method of calculating the tsunami force acting on a submerged structure, i.e., the equivalent pressure method, is based on the assumption that the tsunami force acting on a structure is equivalent to the hydrostatic water pressure acting on that structure at a factored water depth. However, it is not certain that the same method can be applied to surface pipeline facilities. In order to confirm the applicability of the equivalent pressure method to surface pipeline facilities, we carried out a numerical simulation of the fluid–structure interaction and compared the results with those obtained by the equivalent pressure method. This paper discusses the applicability of the equivalent pressure method to surface pipeline facilities based on the comparison.