A Field Experiment on the Recurrence of Large Waves in Wind Seas

Paolo Boccotti

.

DOI: 10.4236/ojms.2011.13007                

Abstract

Wind generated sea waves are generally regarded as an example of pure randomness in nature. Here we give a proof that the matter is not exactly so: some identical sequences of relatively large waves were found many hours apart from one another. This finding supports the theory of quasi determinism of sea waves.

Keywords

Experiment, Wave, Groups

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	P. Boccotti, “On Ocean Waves with High Crests,” Meccanica, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1982, pp. 16-19. doi:10.1007/BF02156003
[2]	P. Boccotti, “Some New Results on Statistical Properties of Wind Waves,” Applied Ocean Research, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1983, pp. 134-140. doi:10.1016/0141-1187(83)90067-6
[3]	P. Boccotti, “Sea Waves and Quasi-Determinism of Rare Events in Random Processes,” Atti del'Accademia Nazionale dei Lince, Vol. 76, No. 2, 1984, pp. 119- 127.
[4]	P. Boccotti, “On Mechanics of Irregular Gravity Waves,” Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Memorie, Vol. 19, 1989, pp. 110-170.
[5]	P. Boccotti, G. Barbaro and L. Mannino, “A Field Experiment on the Mechanics of Irregular Gravity Waves,” Journal of Fluid Me-chanics, Vol. 252, 1993, pp. 173-186. doi:10.1017/S0022112093003714
[6]	O. M. Phillips, D. Gu and M. Donelan, 1993. “On the Expected Structure of Extreme Waves in a Gaussian Sea. I. Theory and SWADE Buoy Measurements,” Journal of Physical Oceanography, Vol. 23, No. 5, 1993, pp. 992- 1000. doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1993)023<0992:ESOEWI>2.0.CO;2
[7]	O. M. Phillips, D. Gu and E. J. Walsh, “On the Expected Structure of Extreme Waves in a Gaussian Sea. II. SWADE Scanning Radar Altimeter Measurements,” Journal of Physical Oceanography, Vol. 23, No. 10, 1993, pp. 2297-2309. doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1993)023<2297:OTESOE>2.0.CO;2
[8]	P. Boccotti, “A General Theory of Three-Dimensional Wave Groups,” Ocean Engineering, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1997 pp. 265-300. doi:10.1016/S0029-8018(96)00013-3
[9]	P. Boc-cotti, “Wave Mechanics for Ocean Engineering,” Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 2000, pp. 1-496.
[10]	P. Boccotti, “Quasi-Determinism Theory of Sea Waves,” ASME Journal Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, Vol. 130, No. 2, 2008, pp. 1-9.
[11]	F. Fedele and F. Arena, “Weakly Nonlinear Statistics of High Random Waves,” Physics of Fluids, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2005, pp. 1-10. doi:10.1063/1.1831311
[12]	F. Arena, A. Ascanelli, V. Nava, D. Pavone and A. Romolo, “Non-Linear Three-Dimensional Wave Groups in Finite Water Depth,” Coastal Engineering, Vol. 55, No. 12, 2008, pp. 1052-1061. doi:10.1016/j.coastaleng.2008.04.002
[13]	F. Fedele and M. A. Tayfun, “On Nonlinear Wave Groups and Crest Statistics,” Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 620, 2009, pp. 221-239.doi:10.1017/S0022112008004424
[14]	F. Arena, and C. Guedes-Soares, “Nonlinear High Wave Groups in Bimodal Sea States,” ASCE Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering, Vol. 135, No. 3, 2009, pp. 69-79. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)WW.1943-5460.0000002