The criterion for the initiation of breaking demonstrated numerically by Barthelemy et al. (2015) has been investigated in the laboratory for unidirectional wave groups in deep-water and extended to include conditions of moderate wind forcing. Thermal Image Velocimetry was used to compare measurements of the crest surface water particle velocity (U s ) with the wave crest velocity (C), as determined by an array of closely-spaced wave gauges. The energy flux ratio B x = U s /C that distinguishes maximum recurrence from marginal breaking was found to be 0.840±0.016 in good agreement with the numerically determined value of 0.855. Further, the threshold was found to be robust for different classes of wave groups of distinct characteristic steepness at the breaking threshold. Increasing wind forcing from zero to U λ/4 /C 0 =1.42 increased this threshold by 2%. Increasing the spectral bandwidth (decreasing the Benjamin-Feir index from 0.39 to 0.31) systematically reduced the threshold by 1.5%.

This study aims to investigate wave power along the northern coasts of the Gulf of Oman. To simulate wave parameters the third generation spectral SWAN model was utilized, and the results were validated with buoy and ADCP data. First, annual energy was calculated in the study region with the hindcast dataset covering 23 years . The areas with the highest wave resource were determined and the area proximity to the port of Chabahar is suggested as the best site for the installation of a wave farm. Second, the average monthly wave energy in this area was investigated. The most energetic waves are provided by the southeast Indian Ocean monsoon from June to August. Finally, the wave energy resource was characterized in terms of sea state parameters. It was found that the bulk of annual wave energy occurs for significant wave heights between 1 and 3 m and energy periods between 4 and 8 s in the direction of SSE.

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