Abstract Investigating tsunamigenic landslides via physical experiments is important to increase the understanding of these often devastating events for improving disaster prevention. Landslide masses often consist of granular material, which usually is characterized by non‐uniform grain size distributions, irregular shape and pronounced surface roughness. These material properties have not been comprehensively tested in laboratory experiments on landslide‐induced tsunamis so far. The present study aims to investigate the effect of grain size distribution, particle shape and surface roughness on landslide induced tsunami generation via systematic laboratory experiments. A total of 43 2D flume experiments were performed, using gravity‐accelerated granular slides in a reservoir with a constant water depth, while a 30 slope angle was maintained for the slide. Three granular materials were tested, with individual grain surfaces ranging from very smooth surface, uniform grain size distribution and spherical shape to very rough surface, non‐uniform grain size distribution and irregularly shaped particles. For the rough material, four different grain diameters were tested. The results show that slide impact velocity and maximum wave amplitude were reduced significantly for the rougher materials compared to smooth glass beads, and that the wave amplitude reduction along the flume distance was larger for rough materials. Minor variations in surface roughness had negligible impact on wave amplitude, suggesting that grain roughness is not a primary controlling factor unless substantially reduced. With the exception of the first gauge, a correlation between grain size and wave amplitude can be observed at all gauges along the flume.
Bleidorn et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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