Wave Statistics for Intermediate Depth Water: New Waves and Symmetry

Author(s):  
P. H. Taylor ◽  
B. A. Williams

A study has been made into the average shape of large crests and troughs during several storms using wave elevation data from the WACSIS measurement programme. The analysis techniques adopted were data-driven at all times, in order to test whether 2nd order wave theory could reproduce important features in the field data. The sea surface displayed obvious non-linear behaviour, reflected in the fact that the shapes of crests were always sharper and larger than their trough equivalents. Assuming that the dominant non-linear correction is second order in the wave steepness (but without a knowledge of the detailed form of 2nd order theory), the average shapes of maxima in the underlying linear wave components were shown to match NewWave. This NewWave is the scaled auto-correlation function for a linear random process with the same power spectrum as the measured waves. Thus, NewWave was shown to be an acceptable model for the linear part of large waves on intermediate water depth (here ∼17m). Assuming that NewWave is a good model for the linear part of large crests and troughs, a value for the second order coefficient required to estimate crest elevation statistics was derived from the measured data for several storms. This coefficient was in good agreement with the results of the 2nd order random simulations of Forristall and Prevosto. As well as studying vertical asymmetry, required for crest and trough statistics, horizontal asymmetry was examined using the Hilbert transform. Compared to a large amount of vertical asymmetry, the analysis showed that there was virtually no horizontal asymmetry for the bulk of the waves in the records. However, there is a very small degree of horizontal asymmetry exhibited in the largest waves in the records. Thus, given a surface elevation record, it is difficult to distinguish the direction of the time axis, again consistent with most of the non-linearity being due to simple 2nd order bound waves.

2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. H. Taylor ◽  
B. A. Williams

A study has been made into the average shape of large crests and troughs during several storms using wave elevation data from the WACSIS measurement program. The analysis techniques adopted were data-driven at all times, in order to test whether second-order wave theory could reproduce important features in the field data. The sea surface displayed obvious nonlinear behavior, reflected in the fact that the shapes of crests were always sharper and larger than their trough equivalents. Assuming that the dominant nonlinear correction is second order in the wave steepness (but without a knowledge of the detailed form of second-order theory), the average shapes of maxima in the underlying linear wave components were shown to match NewWave. This NewWave is the scaled auto-correlation function for a linear random process with the same power spectrum as the measured waves. Thus, NewWave was shown to be an acceptable model for the linear part of large waves on intermediate water depth (here ∼17 m). Assuming that NewWave is a good model for the linear part of large crests and troughs, a value for the second-order coefficient required to estimate crest elevation statistics was derived from the measured data for several storms. This coefficient was in good agreement with the results of the second-order random simulations of Forristall and Prevosto [1]. As well as studying vertical asymmetry, required for crest and trough statistics, horizontal asymmetry was examined using the Hilbert transform. Compared to a large amount of vertical asymmetry, the analysis showed that there was virtually no horizontal asymmetry for the bulk of the waves in the records. However, there is a very small degree of horizontal asymmetry exhibited in the largest waves in the records. Thus, given a surface elevation record, it is difficult to distinguish the direction of the time axis, again consistent with most of the nonlinearity being due to simple second-order bound waves.


2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Fouques ◽  
Harald E. Krogstad ◽  
Dag Myrhaug

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging of ocean waves involves both the geometry and the kinematics of the sea surface. However, the traditional linear wave theory fails to describe steep waves, which are likely to bring about specular reflection of the radar beam, and it may overestimate the surface fluid velocity that causes the so-called velocity bunching effect. Recently, the interest for a Lagrangian description of ocean gravity waves has increased. Such an approach considers the motion of individual labeled fluid particles and the free surface elevation is derived from the surface particles positions. The first order regular solution to the Lagrangian equations of motion for an inviscid and incompressible fluid is the so-called Gerstner wave. It shows realistic features such as sharper crests and broader troughs as the wave steepness increases. This paper proposes a second order irregular solution to these equations. The general features of the first and second order waves are described, and some statistical properties of various surface parameters such as the orbital velocity, slope, and mean curvature are studied.


Author(s):  
Jelena Vidic-Perunovic ◽  
Niels J. Risho̸j Nielsen ◽  
Haiwen Zhang

The hydrodynamic analysis of the flexible riser for offshore application is usually limited to the first order wave frequency motions of the floating vessel that holds the riser top end. In this paper effort is made to investigate the influence of non-linear second order springing deflection of the production vessel hull on flexible riser response. The system selected in this study consists of a free-hanging flexible riser configuration attached to an FPSO. Due to resonance between the excitation wave frequency and the natural vibration frequency of the hull, second order flexible vertical motions of the FPSO increase. This may influence the riser loads, presumably the tension force. Vertical motions including the second order high frequency contribution are assigned to the flexible riser at a point of attachment to the vessel. To account for the environmental loading, irregular sea is applied, characterized by modified linear wave spectrum. Second order excitation wave spectrum is truncated by use of WAFO routines for random second order wave simulation and an analytical form of the spectrum that accounts for the non-linear wave effects is proposed. Several environmental conditions are examined in order to consolidate the tendency in riser behaviour. The significance of the high-frequency quadratic terms in the loads along the flexible riser is discussed.


1982 ◽  
Vol 1 (18) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Yu-Cheng Li ◽  
John B. Herbich

The interaction of a gravity wave with a steady uniform current is described in this paper. Numerical calculations of the wave length change by different non-linear wave theories show that errors in the results computed by the linear wave theory are less than 10 percent within the range of 0.15 < d/Ls s 0.40, 0.01 < Hs/Ls < 0.07 and -0.15 < U/Cs i 0.30. Numerical calculations of wave height change employing different wave theories show that errors in the results obtained by the linear wave theory in comparison with the non-linear theories are greater when the opposing relative current and wave steepness become larger. However, within range of the following currents such errors will not be significant. These results were verified by model tests. Nomograms for the modification of wave length and wave height by the linear wave theory and Stokes1 third order theory are presented for a wide range of d/Ls, Hs/Ls and U/C. These nomograms provide the design engineer with a practical guide for estimating wave lengths and heights affected by currents.


Author(s):  
Se´bastien Fouques ◽  
Harald E. Krogstad ◽  
Dag Myrhaug

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging of ocean waves involves both the geometry and the kinematics of the sea surface. However, the traditional linear wave theory fails to describe steep waves, which are likely to bring about specular reflection of the radar beam, and it may overestimate the surface fluid velocity that causes the so-called velocity bunching effect. Recently, the interest for a Lagrangian description of ocean gravity waves has increased. Such an approach considers the motion of individual labeled fluid particles and the free surface elevation is derived from the surface particles positions. The first order regular solution to the Lagrangian equations of motion for an inviscid and incompressible fluid is the so-called Gerstner wave. It shows realistic features such as sharper crests and broader troughs as the wave steepness increases. This paper proposes a second order irregular solution to these equations. The general features of the first and second order waves are described, and some statistical properties of various surface parameters such as the orbital velocity, the slope and the mean curvature are studied.


Author(s):  
J. Zang ◽  
R. Gibson ◽  
P. H. Taylor ◽  
R. Eatock Taylor ◽  
C. Swan

The objective of this research, part of the FP5 REBASDO Programme, is to examine the effects of directional wave spreading on the nonlinear hydrodynamic loads and the wave run-up around the bow of a floating vessel (FPSO) in random seas. In this work, the non-linear wave scattering problem is solved by employing a quadratic boundary element method. An existing scheme (DIFFRACT developed in Oxford) has been extended to deal with uni-directional and directional bi-chromatic input wave systems, calculating second-order wave diffraction under regular waves and focused wave groups. The second order wave interaction with a floating vessel in a unidirectional focused wave group is presented in this paper. Comparison of numerical results and the experimental measurements conducted at Imperial College shows excellent agreement. The second-order free surface components at the bow of the ship are very significant, and cannot be neglected if one requires accurate prediction of the wave-structure interaction; otherwise a major underestimation of the wave impact on the structure could occur.


Author(s):  
Alexander V. Babanin

Design criteria in ocean engineering, whether this is one in 50 years or one in 5000 years event, are hardly ever based on measurements, and rather on statistical distributions of relevant metocean properties. Of utmost interest is the tail of these distributions, that is rare events such as the highest waves with low probability. Engineers have long since realised that the superposition of linear waves with narrow-banded spectrum as depicted by the Rayleigh distribution underestimates the probability of extreme wave crests, and is not adequate for wave heights either, which is a critical shortcoming as far as the engineering design is concerned. Ongoing theoretical and experimental efforts have been under way for decades to address this issue. Here, we will concentrate on short-term statistics, i.e. probability of crests/heights of individual waves. Typical approach is to treat all possible waves in the ocean or at a particular location as a single ensemble for which some comprehensive solution can be found. The oceanographic knowledge, however, now indicates that no single and united comprehensive solution is possible. Probability distributions in different physical circumstances should be different, and by combining them together the inevitable scatter is introduced. The scatter and the accuracy will not improve by increasing the bulk data quality and quantity, and it hides the actual distribution of extreme events. The groups have to be separated and their probability distributions treated individually. The paper offers a review of physical conditions, from simple one-dimensional trains of free waves to realistic two-dimensional wind-forced wave fields, in order to understand where different probability distributions can be expected. If the wave trains/fields in the wave records are stable, distributions for the second-order waves should serve well. If modulational instability is active, rare extreme events not predicted by the second-order theory should become possible. This depends on wave steepness, bandwidth and directionality. Mean steepness also defines the wave breaking and therefore the upper limit for wave heights in this group of conditions. Under hurricane-like circumstances, the instability gives way to direct wind forcing, and yet another statistics is to be expected.


Author(s):  
Mark L. McAllister ◽  
Thomas A. A. Adcock ◽  
Paul H. Taylor ◽  
Ton S. van den Bremer

High wind speeds generated during hurricanes result in the formation of extreme waves. Extreme waves by nature are steep meaning that linear wave theory alone is insufficient in understanding and predicting their occurrence. The complex, highly transient nature of the direction of wind and hence of waves generated during hurricanes affects this nonlinear behavior. Herein, we examine how this directionality can affect the second-order nonlinearity of extreme waves generated during hurricanes. This is achieved through both deterministic calculations and experiments based on the observations of Young (2006, “Directional Spectra of Hurricane Wind Waves,” J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 111(C8), epub). Our calculations show that interactions between the tail and peak of the spectrum can become significant when they travel in different directions, resulting in second-order difference components that exist in the linear range of frequencies. These calculations are generally supported by experimental observations, but we note the difficulty of generating and focusing the high-frequency tail of the spectrum experimentally. Bound second-order difference components or subharmonics typically exist as low frequency infra-gravity waves. Components that exist in the linear range of frequencies may be missed by conventional methods of processing field data where low-pass filtering is used and hence overlooked. In this note, we show that in idealized directional spreading conditions representative of a hurricane, failing to account for second-order difference components may lead to underestimation of extreme wave height.


1970 ◽  
Vol 14 (01) ◽  
pp. 23-50
Author(s):  
Young H. Chey

Because of the recognized inadequacy of first-order linearized surface-wave theory, the author has developed, for a three-dimensional body, a new second-order theory which provides a better description of free-surface phenomena. The new theory more accurately satisfies the kinematic boundary condition on the solid wall, and takes into account the nonlinearity of the condition at the free surface. The author applies the new theory to a submerged spheroid, to calculate wave resistance. Experiments were conducted to verify the theory, and their results are compared with the theoretical results. The comparison indicates that the use of the new theory leads to more accurate prediction of wave resistance.


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