Breaking Wave Statistics In Short-Crested Seas

Abstract

The accurate prediction of loads to allow for a safe yet efficient design of coastal and offshore structures requires a thorough understanding of the distribution of crest heights. Although deep water waves are relatively well understood and accurately modelled by existing wave and crest height models, the same cannot be said for waves in intermediate and shallow waters (Tayfun & Alkhalidi, 2020). This work addresses this gap by analysing long, random records of laboratory-generated short-crested seas. The analysis focuses on the application of a novel method to identify waves that undergo significant nonlinear amplification and breaking. Following their identification, the associated energy transfers and dissipation are calculated per wave and probabilistically approximated. A modelling suite is proposed to describe the probability of wave breaking and associated dissipation in short-crested seas. This is then converted into a mixture model to recover crest height statistics. The success of the proposed approach is demonstrated through comparisons between model predictions and measurements.