Understanding capillary water absorption in concrete is of major significance for the durability assessment of concrete structures, particularly when cracks are present. The paper develops a three-dimensional (3D) finite-element (FE) model to simulate water absorption in concrete samples with discrete crack networks. In this model, the uncracked domain is discretized into solid elements whereas discrete cracks are modeled by zero-thickness crack elements, with the unsaturated flow theory applied to describe the water penetration process. The proposed model is validated by comparing with experimental data from the literature. Concrete samples containing randomly generated 3D crack networks are employed for investigating water uptake, and the effects of crack configurations (i.e., crack density, length, and width) on the sorptivity are evaluated numerically. The proposed model is shown to be capable of simulating the capillary flow within unsaturated cracked concrete, indicating that the discrete cracks play a significant role in accelerating the absorption rate of water.

This study presents a numerical landslide-tsunami hazard assessment technique for applications in reservoirs, lakes, fjords, and the sea. This technique is illustrated with hypothetical scenarios at Es Vedrà, offshore Ibiza, although currently no evidence suggests that this island may become unstable. The two selected scenarios include two particularly vulnerable locations, namely: (i) Cala d’Hort on Ibiza (3 km away from Es Vedrà) and (ii) Marina de Formentera (23 km away from Es Vedrà). The violent wave generation process is modelled with the meshless Lagrangian method smoothed particle hydrodynamics. Further offshore, the simulations are continued with the less computational expensive code SWASH (Simulating WAves till SHore), which is based on the non-hydrostatic non-linear shallow water equations that are capable of considering bottom friction and frequency dispersion. The up to 133-m high tsunamis decay relatively fast with distance from Es Vedrà; the wave height 5 m offshore Cala d’Hort is 14.2 m, reaching a maximum run-up height of over 21.5 m, whilst the offshore wave height (2.7 m) and maximum inundation depth at Marina de Formentera (1.2 m) are significantly smaller. This study illustrates that landslide-tsunami hazard assessment can nowadays readily be conducted under consideration of site-specific details such as the bathymetry and topography, and intends to support future investigations of real landslide-tsunami cases.