Numerical analysis on wave generated by the Qianjiangping landslide in Three Gorges Reservoir, China

• Published in: Landslides Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 355 - 364
• Main Authors: Yin, Yue-ping, Huang, Bolin, Chen, Xiaoting, Liu, Guangning, Wang, Shichang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; Boats; Canyons; China; Civil Engineering; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Genetically modified organisms; Geography; Geological hazards; Joining; Landslides; Landslides & mudslides; Mathematical models; Natural Hazards; Numerical analysis; Recent Landslides; Reduction; Reservoirs; Rigid-body dynamics; Simulation analysis; Sliding; Slopes; Solitary waves; Water bodies; Water levels; Wave height; Wave runup; China, People's Rep., Sichuan Prov., Changjiang R., Three Gorges Dam; China, People's Rep; Solitary wave; Coupled numerical model; Qianjiangping landslide; Impulse wave
• DOI: 10.1007/s10346-015-0564-7
• ISSN: 1612-510X

The Qianjiangping landslide occurred on July 13, 2003 when water level in the Three Gorges Reservoir in China reached 135 m a.s.l. for about 1 month. Thirteen people on the slope and 11 fishermen on boats in the nearby area were killed by this landslide and its wave. As a typical case, the Qianjiangping landslide is researched extensively, but the wave itself was studied much less. In this paper, a fluid–solid coupling model based on general moving objects (GMO) collision model and renormalisation group (RNG) turbulent model were employed, simplifying the sliding motion of the Qianjiangping landslide as a rigid body circular motion whose validity was verified by comparing with actual survey conditions related. Numerical simulation analysis shows that in the Qianjiangping landslide event, the solid–fluid energy-transferring rate was 5.97 %, while the motion of sliding mass could push and raise water body. The maximum-modelled wave run-up generated by the Qianjiangping landslide was 40.4 m (up to 175.4 m a.s.l.), while the maximal observed one was 39 m. It was the solitary wave, and the wave celerity was 32∼36 m/s or so. The hazardous river length of impulse wave was estimated to be 12.6 km, where wave height was more than 1 m high. The fluid–solid coupling numerical model employed by this paper can provide important reference for wave generated by other landslides around the world. Research of the landslide-generated wave is very significant in landslide hazard reduction and prevention.