Generation and Prediction of Water Waves Induced by Rigid Piston-like Landslide

Abstract Accurate prediction of water waves generated by landslides is of significant importance in the early warning and risk assessment of landslide disasters. And previous studies shown that landslide-induced waves are of various types, which indicates that there are different generation regimes for landslide induced waves. In the present study, the generation of water waves by a rigid landslide is studied numerically and theoretically. According to the motion characteristics of a landslide, three types of landslide motions, including piston-like, plunger-like, and transition landslide motions are detected. The performed analyses demonstrate that the solitary-like wave and dissipative transient bore are generated by piston-like landslides. Moreover, nonlinear oscillatory and transition waves are generated by plunger-like and transition landslides, respectively. It is also found that the wave height generated by piston-like landslide depends on the effective velocity of fluid translated by the landslide. For piston-like landslide motion, the correlation between the wave height, wavelength, and the effective velocity of a rigid landslide are established theoretically, and then it is verified using numerical results. The present study is expected to provide a reference to investigate early warning of landslide-induced waves.