Relationship between wave steepness and wave age in the course of wind wave growth

Abstract

It is traditionally assumed that the relationship between wave steepness and wave age is independent of the wind wave growth state. In fact, the traditional relationship can not describe the whole course of wind wave growth. This paper assumes that the relationship between wave steepness and wave age changes with the variety of dimensionless fetch. Based on the relationship proposed by Hou and Wen (1990), a new relationship in the course of wind wave growth is revealed. Comparisons between the present study and other previous relationships show that this new relationship explains better the observations than the other existing relationships. In the case of small fetch, wave age value increases more quickly than other models while it is in opposition to that in the case of large fetch. The result in present paper can clearly reflect the whole course of wind wave growth, it is an improvement for traditional results.