Abstract
Some well-engineered reinforced concrete buildings collapsed due to the tsunami in the Tohoku-Pacific Coast Earthquake on March 11th, 2011. Understanding the tsunami forces and damage mechanisms of these buildings has become an urgent issue that demands prompt action from the tsunami resistant building design. In this study, a tsunami simulation using VOF method has been conducted to reproduce the tsunami in Onagawa city, Miyagi prefecture. Calculated tsunami elevations and inundation on shore showed good agreement with the recorded results. Tsunami loads acting on a collapsed building in the Onagawa port area were also discussed under considering the damaged situations of the building foundation and its piles in order to clarify the falling mechanism of the building.
