Experimental assessment of changes of sandy beach profile and sedimenttransport caused by tsunami waves

Destructive solitary (tsunami) waves are capable of moving large amounts of coastal sediments and causing subsequent morphological changes in sandy beaches. Experimental studies can be signi cantly helpful to assess the process of sediment transport brought about by a tsunami. The present study is an experimental one that aims to investigate sediment transport and deformation of sandy beaches caused by tsunami waves. Waves were generated by a gate wave-producing system to simulate tsunami waves. Laboratory equipment and mounted cameras were applied to examine run-up and run-down processes of waves and the beach pro le changes were drawn. The techniques of estimating the transport rate of sediment particles is based on the four traps set in different parts of the beach. The obtained results showed that waves were not capable of transporting the sediment in regions far from the coast where shoaling effects were not considerable. Furthermore, wave breaking point and its distance from each trap have signi cant effects on the sediment transport assessment of that region. Moreover, the achieved ndings indicate that sediment transport that occurred in the run-down of the waves was more effective than that from run-up.