Tsunami not behaving physically in Fluent

Shane

Hi all,

I am trying to use the 2d VOF model in FLUENT to analyse the breaking behaviour of tsunami waves on a beach slope. The solitary wave is generated along the continental shelf by a moving wall boundary and that wave approaches shore before travelling along the slope. According to tsunami theory, as the wave approaches the shoreline, the wave amplitude should increase dramatically before crashing. However, when my wave approaches the shore, the water level rises a little over a long distance (ie no wave breaking evident). The water seems to flood the domain, but for the case where a 15m tall tsunami is expected, the water level "floods", and only reaches a vertical height of about 2m. Hence my question is, why is the model behaving in an unphysical manner. I have measured the height of the approaching wave and it is as expected, it just seems that the water doesn't want to increase in amplitude when it should. Why???

I am using Fluent v6.2, VOF, unsteady, NITA, PRESTO for pressure, 2nd order or better for almost everything, k-epsilon turbulence.

Thanks in advance

Shane