Energy transfer and phase operators for inducing extreme wave events from traditional wave models

Abstract

A simple nonlinear phase operator was recently introduced which when applied to standard sea wave models was able to generate many of the properties of extreme waves. This technique was not able to describe the largest events observed. The methodology is extended to include a second nonlinear operator which transfers part or all of the energy from the original wave spectrum into far more uniform real valued transient spectra. This in combination with the original phase operator was able to describe all sizes of observed extreme wave phenomena and also provided some insights into the nonlinear mechanisms involved in such events.