Resumen
Tsunamis can seriously damage bridges in coastal areas. Studies of such damage have elucidated the action of tsunami-induced forces on girders. However, tsunami-induced erosion of bridge-abutment backfill has been largely neglected. This article investigates this little-studied topic using hydraulic model experiments and numerical analyses. The results show that a tsunami erodes the backfill close to the abutment; the scale of the erosion increases with the duration of the tsunami. By contrast, the backfill on the far side of the abutment remains relatively intact. This suggests that the presence of the abutment accelerates the erosion of the backfill in its vicinity. A numerical simulation shows that the tsunami erodes the oval conical part of the backfill on the landward side of the onshore wing. When the erosion reaches the lower end of the wing the backfill begins to flow out from underneath. Thus, an increase in the soil-cover depth of the onshore wing might help slow down the erosion.