Abstract
It is known that piloti-type structures, which have open space on the ground floor, have an advantage for tsunami hitting because tsunami can pass through the ground floor. There is a basic guideline for the design of piloti-type structures for tsunami forces but detailed information such as tsunami forces acting on the elevator hall or the ceiling is not speculated. It was also reported that tsunami forces acting on members of piloti-type structures such as the elevator hall or the ceiling estimated by the existing guideline were occasionally much smaller than the tsunami forces measured by the hydraulic physical model tests.
In the present study, hydraulic physical model tests were performed by using the tsunami wave generator in the wave basin in order to investigate the characteristics of tsunami force acting on the elevator hall of the piloti-type structures. As a result of the physical model tests, the tsunami forces acting on members of the structure could be estimated by the Froude Number of the incoming tsunami, same manner as in the case of a vertical wall. When the elevator hall of the piloti-type structures is located in the landward side, the tsunami forces acting on the elevator hall becomes larger because the tsunami flow is restricted at the ceiling in front of the elevator hall. This tsunami forces could be estimated by the momentum of the incoming tsunami.
