The Numerical Technique for the Landslide Tsunami Simulations Based on Navier–Stokes Equations

The paper presents an integral technique simulating all phases of a landslide-driven tsunami. The technique is based on the numerical solution of the system of Navier–Stokes equations for multiphase flows. The numerical algorithm uses a fully implicit approximation method, in which the equations of continuity and momentum conservation are coupled through implicit summands of pressure gradient and mass flow. The method we propose removes severe restrictions on the time step and allows simulation of tsunami propagation to arbitrarily large distances. The landslide origin is simulated as an individual phase being a Newtonian fluid with its own density and viscosity and separated from the water and air phases by an interface. The basic formulas of equation discretization and expressions for coefficients are presented, and the main steps of the computation procedure are described in the paper. To enable simulations of tsunami propagation across wide water areas, we propose a parallel algorithm of the technique implementation, which employs an algebraic multigrid method. The implementation of the multigrid method is based on the global level and cascade collection algorithms that impose no limitations on the paralleling scale and make this technique applicable to petascale systems. We demonstrate the possibility of simulating all phases of a landslide-driven tsunami, including its generation, propagation and uprush. The technique has been verified against the problems supported by experimental data. The paper describes the mechanism of incorporating bathymetric data to simulate tsunamis in real water areas of the world ocean. Results of comparison with the nonlinear dispersion theory, which has demonstrated good agreement, are presented for the case of a historical tsunami of volcanic origin on the Montserrat Island in the Caribbean Sea.