Distribution of nonlinear wave crests

The distribution of nonlinear wave crests is examined on the basis of a theoretical probability density previously given elsewhere (J. Eng. Mech. 120 (1994) 1009). Certain errors contained in the original theoretical density are corrected, and the corresponding exceedance distribution is derived. The resulting theoretical forms of the probability density and exceedance distribution are then slightly simplified and compared with nonlinear wave data gathered under hurricane conditions. The results indicate that the proposed theoretical forms describe the observed distributions of large wave crests better than the Rayleigh law. However, the quantitative accuracy of the predictions is somewhat poor, as is typical of approximate theories based on Gram–Charlier-type expansions.     

Wave runup on a concentric twin perforated circular cylinder

The regular wave interaction with a twin concentric porous circular cylinder system consisting of an inner impermeable cylinder and an outer perforated cylinder was studied through physical model and numerical model studies. The experiments were carried out on the twin concentric cylinder model in a wave flume to study the wave runup and rundown at the leading and trailing edges of the perforated cylinder. It was found that the maximum wave runup on the perforated cylinder is almost same as the incident wave height. The experimental results were used to develop the predictive formulae for the wave runup and rundown on the perforated cylinder, which can be easily used for design applications. The wave runup profiles around the perforated cylinder for different values of ka and porosities were studied numerically using Green's Identity Method. The results of the numerical study are presented and compared with the experimental measurements.     

On the radiation and diffraction of linear water waves by an infinitely long rectangular structure submerged in oblique seas

The radiation and diffraction of linear water waves by an infinitely long rectangular structure submerged in oblique seas of finite depth is investigated. The analytical expressions for the radiated and diffracted potentials are derived as infinite series by use of the method of separation of variables. The unknown coefficients in the series are determined by the eigenfunction expansion matching method. The expressions for wave forces, hydrodynamic coefficients and reflection and transmission coefficients are given and verified by the boundary element method. Using the present analytical solution, the hydrodynamic influences of the angle of incidence, the submergence, the width and the thickness of the structure on the wave forces, hydrodynamic coefficients, and reflection and transmission coefficients are discussed in detail.     

Wave interaction with a perforated wall breakwater with a submerged horizontal porous plate

This study examines the hydrodynamic performance of a new perforated-wall breakwater. The breakwater consists of a perforated front wall, a solid back wall and a submerged horizontal porous plate installed between them. The horizontal porous plate enhances the stability and wave-absorbing capacity of the structure. An analytical solution based on linear potential theory is developed for the interaction of water waves with the new proposed breakwater. According to the division of the structure, the whole fluid domain is divided into three sub-domains, and the velocity potential in each domain is obtained using the matched eigenfunction method. Then the reflection coefficient and the wave forces and moments on the perforated front wall and the submerged horizontal porous plate are calculated. The numerical results obtained for limiting cases are exactly the same as previous predictions for a perforated-wall breakwater with a submerged horizontal solid plate [Yip, T.L., Chwang, A.T., 2000. Perforated wall breakwater with internal horiontal plate. Journal of Engineering Mechanics ASCE 126 (5), 533–538] and a vertical wall with a submerged horizontal porous plate [Wu, J.H., Wan, Z.P., Fang, Y., 1998. Wave reflection by a vertical wall with a horizontal submerged porous plate. Ocean Engineering 25 (9), 767–779]. Numerical results show that with suitable geometric porosity of the front wall and horizontal plate, the reflection coefficient will be always rather small if the relative wave absorbing chamber width (distance between the front and back walls versus incident wavelength) exceeds a certain small value. In addition, the wave force and moment on the horizontal plate decrease significantly with the increase of the plate porosity.     

Statistics of nonlinear wave crests and groups

Groups of large nonlinear waves with sharper higher crests can pose hazards to ships, induce harbor resonance and cause wave-overtopping of fixed and floating structures. Past interest in wave groups has mostly been focused on the statistics and modeling of linear wave groups. Studies on nonlinear wave groups are surprisingly few, and address deep water waves only. Here, statistics of nonlinear wave crests and wave-crest groups in deep and transitional water depths are considered, using an appropriate second-order representation for crest heights and the continuous wave-envelope approach. In particular, theoretical expressions describing the statistics of nonlinear wave crests and their groups are posed in the form of a simple second-order transformation of well-known results on linear waves. Predictions from the transformation so posed compare well with nonlinear wave data gathered in the North Sea, and demonstrate that nonlinearities do affect the statistics of large wave crests and their groups significantly.     

Evaluation of bending moments and shear forces at unit connections of very large floating structures using hydroelastic and rigid body analyses

This paper investigates the characteristics of bending moments, shear forces and stresses at unit connections of very large floating structures (VLFS) under wave loads. The responses of VLFS are calculated by solving multi-body motion equation considering hydroelasticity and connection stiffness. Hydroelastic responses are calculated by the direct method. Higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) is used for fluid analysis and finite element method (FEM) is introduced for structural analysis. The equation of motion is modified to describe the unit connections by employing spring elements. Bending moments and shear forces at the connections are obtained from the dynamic equilibrium condition for pressures and inertia forces. Two types of VLFS units such as tandem arranged units and side-by-side arranged units are considered in the numerical examples. The influences of connection stiffness, wave frequency and heading angle on responses of VLFS are investigated through the numerical examples. Rigid body analysis along with hydroelastic analysis is also carried out in the numerical analysis and comparison of those two approaches is discussed.     

Neural network for wave forecasting among multi-stations

Unlike in the open sea, the use of wind information for forecasting waves may encounter more ambiguous uncertainties in the coastal or harbor area due to the influence of complicated geometric configurations. Thus this paper attempts to forecast the waves based on learning the characteristics of observed waves, rather than the use of the wind information. This is reported in this paper by the application of the artificial neural network (ANN), in which the back-propagation algorithm is employed in the learning process for obtaining the desired results. This model evaluated the interconnection weights among multi-stations based on the previous short-term data, from which a time series of waves at a station can be generated for forecasting or data supplement based on using the neighbor stations data. Field data are used for testing the applicability of the ANN model. The results show that the ANN model performs well for both wave forecasting and data supplement when using a short-term observed wave data.     

A novel technique in analyzing non-linear wave-wave interaction

During wave growth non-linear wave–wave interactions cause transfer of some wave energy from lower to higher wave periods as the spectrum grows. Wavelet bicoherence, which is a new technique in the analysis of wind–wave and wave–wave interactions, is used to analyze non-linear wave–wave interactions. A selected record of wind wave that contains the maximum wave height observed during 6 h of wave generation is divided into five segments and wavelet bicoherence is computed for the whole record, and for all divided segments. The study shows that the non-linear wave–wave interaction occurs at different bicoherence levels and these levels are different from one segment to another due to the non-stationarity feature of the examined data set.     

A polar method for obtaining wave resonating quadruplets in finite depths

A polar method for obtaining wave resonating quadruplets {K₁, K₂, K₃, K₄} in the computation of nonlinear wave–wave interaction source term of the wave model is presented with results for both deep and finite water depths. The method first determines the end radial points of the locus equation for K₂, for each set of input wave vectors (K₁, K₃) on the symmetry. The locus of K₂ (and hence K₄) is then traced in the anti-clockwise direction starting with the maximum radial point on the line of symmetry. It is shown that when k₃>k₁, the number of points on the locus varies when the orientations of the input wave vectors are changed and reduces when the difference in the magnitude of the input wave vectors is increased. A significant advantage in this method is that the angular increment on the locus for K₂ can be kept constant.