On kurtosis and extreme waves in crossing directional seas : A laboratory experiment

Luxmoore, J.F. and Ilic, S. and Mori, N. (2019) On kurtosis and extreme waves in crossing directional seas : A laboratory experiment. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 876. pp. 792-817. ISSN 0022-1120

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Abstract

We examine the statistical properties of extreme and rogue wave activity in crossing directional seas, to constrain the probabilistic distributions of wave heights and wave crests in complex sea states; such crossing seas alter the statistical structure of surface waves and are known to have been involved in several marine accidents. Further, we examine the relationship between the kurtosis as an indicator of nonlinearity in the spectrum and the directionality and crossing angles of the sea-state components. Experimental tests of two-component directionally spread irregular waves with varying frequency, directional spreading and component crossing angles were carried out at the Ocean Basin Laboratory in Trondheim, Norway. The results from the experiments show that wave heights are well described by a first-order (linear) statistical distribution, while for the wave crest heights several cases exceed a second-order distribution. The number of rogue waves is relatively low overall, which agrees with previous findings in directionally spread seas. The kurtosis and wave and crest height exceedance probabilities were more affected by varying the directional spreading of the components than by varying the crossing angles between components; reducing the component directional spreading increases the kurtosis and increases the exceedance probabilities. The kurtosis can be estimated quite well for two-component seas from the directional spreading using an empirical relationship based on the two-dimensional Benjamin–Feir index when the effects of bound modes are included. This result may allow forecasting of the probability of extreme waves from the directional spreading in complex sea states.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Additional Information:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-fluid-mechanics/article/on-kurtosis-and-extreme-waves-in-crossing-directional-seas-a-laboratory-experiment/18801E72B046E792E3B92ACAA70AA69F The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 876, pp 792-817 2019, © 2019 Cambridge University Press.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2200/2211
Subjects:
?? mechanics of materialsmechanical engineeringcondensed matter physics ??
ID Code:
136273
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
23 Aug 2019 08:20
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
24 Nov 2023 00:28