Wave-height distributions and nonlinear effects

Tayfun, M. Aziz; Fedele, Francesco

doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2006.11.006

Cited by 220 publications

(252 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…However, given the uncertainty that exists in this region of the distribution, no firm conclusions can be drawn without considering the sampling variability attributed to the measured data. This has been calculated using the method proposed by Tayfun & Fedele [11] and is indicated on figure 8b using the grey lines. Based on these comparisons, it is clear that the data presented on figure 8b are in very good agreement with the second-order theory, except in the extreme tail of the distribution where small (additional) increases in the crest elevation are observed; the likely explanation for these is wave nonlinearity arising at third order and above.…”

Section: Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A laboratory study of wave crest statistics and the role of directional spreading

Latheef

Swan

2013

Proc. R. Soc. A.

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This paper concerns the crest height statistics arising in sea states that are broad banded in both frequency and direction. A new set of laboratory observations are presented and the results compared with the commonly applied statistical distributions. Taken as a whole, the data confirm that the crest-height distributions are critically dependent upon the directionality of the sea state. Although nonlinear effects arising at third order and above are most pronounced in uni-directional seas, the present data show that they are also important in directionally spread seas, provided the seas are sufficiently steep and not too short crested. The data also highlight the limiting effects of wave breaking. With individual breaking events dependent upon the local wave steepness, the directionality of the sea state again plays a significant role. Indeed, the present observations confirm that the two competing processes of nonlinear amplification and wave breaking can have a profound influence on the crest-height distributions leading to significant departures from established theory. In such cases, the key parameters are the sea state steepness and directional spread; the latter acting to counter the former in terms of nonlinear changes in the crestheight distributions.

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Section: Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was first proposed by Longuet-Higgins [9], with more recent contributions from Tayfun [10] and Tayfun & Fedele [11]. The benefits of this approach are that the surface cumulants, involving certain combinations of spectral moments, can be used to provide guidance as to the importance of the wave nonlinearities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A laboratory study of wave crest statistics and the role of directional spreading

Latheef

Swan

2013

Proc. R. Soc. A.

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“…Currently, this relation is still used in operational altimeter remote sensing retrieval algorithms, for sea surface wave heights, to estimate the values of H s from m 0 1/2 . However, according to previous theoretical studies (Tayfun, 1990;Tayfun and Fedele, 2007;Alkhalidi, 2012), the existence of both nonlinearity and bandwidth effects lowers the H s / m 0 1/2 ratio from 4.005, and introduces systematic error into the H s product based on Eq.2. Although some revised formulas do provide values for the H s / m 0 1/2 ratio that are more accurate (Goda and Kudaka, 2007), they are unsuitable for remote sensing applications because of the diffi culty in evaluating their parameters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Effect of wave spectrum width on the probability density distribution of wind-wave heights

Liu

Hou

et al. 2014

Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol.

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The probability distribution of wave heights under the assumption of narrowband linear wave theory follows the Rayleigh distribution and the statistical relationships between some characteristic wave heights, derived from this distribution, are widely used for the treatment of realistic wind waves. However, the bandwidth of wave frequency infl uences the probability distribution of wave heights. In this paper, a wave-spectrum-width parameter B was introduced into the JONSWAP spectrum. This facilitated the construction of a wind-wave spectrum and the reconstruction of wind-wave time series for various growth stages, based on which the probability density distributions of the wind-wave heights were studied statistically. The distribution curves deviated slightly from the theoretical Rayleigh distribution with increasing B . The probability that a wave height exceeded a certain value was clearly smaller than the theoretical value for B ≥0.3, and the difference between them increased with the threshold value. The relation between the H s / σ ratio and B was investigated statistically, which revealed that the H s / σ ratio deviated from 4.005 and declined with B . When B reached 0.698 1, the H s / σ ratio was 3.825, which is about 95.5% of its original value. This indicates an overestimation in the prediction of H s from H s =4.005 σ , and provides a potential method for improving the accuracy of the H s remote sensing retrieval algorithm, critical for extremely large waves under severe sea states.

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“…In addition, it has been used to describe the ultrasound echo signal when there is a sufficient number of independent approximately equivalent scatterers (Tuthill et al 1988;Zagzebski et al 1999). Likewise, the distribution of wave heights and crests might be Rayleigh (Tayfuna and Fedeleb 2007). Other aspects of this model are treated in Sinha and Howlader (1983);Howlader (1985); Aminzadeh (1991); Lalitha and Mishra (1996); Fernández (2000); Aslam (2007); Dey and Das (2007) and Liang (2007).…”

Section: Rayleigh Distribution: Applications and Likelihoodmentioning

confidence: 99%