Evaluating height-length joint distributions for the crests of ocean waves

Abstract:
The wavelength is an important quantity in a number of ocean-engineering applications, e.g. for design of structures that have dimensions of the same order of magnitude as the wavelength. Most often however, the description of the wave climate is given by a spectrum. We present a methodology based on a representation of a sea state in the frequency domain which returns the joint distribution of crest amplitudes and wavelengths. The method is validated with experimental empirical data, obtained by application of a technique based on Fourier transformation combined with use of the dispersion relation. The algorithm allows for investigation of the influence of spectral shape and directionality on the joint distribution; examples are given in the paper. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.