WAVE AND WATER LEVEL

PREDICTIONS
CHAPTER 4-PART 2

DR SITI HABIBAH SHAFIAI JANUARY 2020

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 OVERVIEW
1. Wave Predictions
2. Estimation Of Surface Winds For Wave Prediction
3. Wave Forecasting For Shallow Water

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 B. FREQUENCY DOMAIN
ANALYSIS
The frequency domain refers to the analysis of
mathematical functions or signals with respect to
frequency, rather than time.

Spectral
density

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 FOURIER SERIES

Fourier series is a way to represent a wave-

like function as a combination of simple sine
waves.

It decomposes any periodic signal into the

sum of a (possibly infinite) set of simple
oscillating functions, namely sines and
cosines.

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 INVERSED FOURIER TRANSFORM
The Inverse Fourier Transform converts the frequency domain function back to a time function.

Frequency domain Time domain

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 the curves above might be better represented by expressions of the type:

n(t) is the departure of the water surface from its average position as a function of time
aj the amplitude
𝜔j the frequency
𝜙j the phase of the j wave at the time t = 0

it is convenient to set 𝜔j = 2𝜋j/D (j is an integer and D the duration of the observation)

The significant period may be defined as D/j
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 TIME VS. FREQUENCY DOMAINS
1. Time domain
analysis produces
“statistical-based”
parameters.

2. Frequency
domain analysis
produces
“energy-based”
parameters

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 *** H𝑚 is the energy-based wave height
0

***
𝑁
1 2
𝜎= ഥ
෍ 𝐻𝑖 − 𝐻
𝑁−1
𝑖−1

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 B. LONG TERM WAVE STATISTICS
(A STATISTICAL STUDY OF RARE EVENTS)
Long term wave analysis is used to predict sea condition which are too rough.

Case study
1. Winter season in areas of the North Atlantic Ocean
2. A storm with 3 or 6 hours time period
3. Characteristic wave data values were grouped and arranged in a table.
4. The number in each cell of this table indicates the significant wave height and wave
periods.

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1. Each cell presents the probability of occurrence of its significant wave height and wave period
range.
2. This probability is equal to the number in this cell divided by the sum of all cells in the table

Example:
Find the probability on a storm with a significant wave height between 4 and 5 meters with a zero-
crossing period between 8 and 9 seconds.

47072
𝑃 4 < 𝐻1Τ3 < 5 𝑎𝑛𝑑 8 < 𝑇2 < 9 = = 4.7%
999995

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 Example:
Find the probability on a storm with a significant wave height between 3 and 5 meters with a
zero-crossing period between 8 and 10 seconds.

47072+56347+74007+64809
𝑃 3 < 𝐻1Τ3 < 5 𝑎𝑛𝑑 8 < 𝑇2 < 10 = = 24.2%
999995

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ESTIMATION OF
SURFACE WINDS
FOR WAVE
PREDICTIONS

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 Winds data
1. Normally obtained either from direct observations over the fetch or
by projection of values over the fetch from observation over land
2. Or by estimates based on weather maps.

Winds over water

1. Winds at water surface are driven mainly by geostrophic balance between
Coriolis and local pressure gradient forces.
2. Below this region, the boundary layer may be divided into a constant stress
(10 to 100 meters in height) and Ekman layer.
3. Wind speed and direction are dependent upon elevation above the mean
surface, roughness of the surface, air-sea temperature differences and
horizontal temperature gradients.
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 In the constant stress layer, windspeed in vertical variation can be expressed as:

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 Example
Given fastest windspeed, Uf = 29 m/s. Find:
Twenty-five-minute average windspeed, Ut=25 min.

Refer Fig 3.12

Therefore

Refer Fig 3.13

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 WAVE FORECASTING FOR SHALLOW WATER
1. Water depth affects wave generation.

2. Wave heights & wave periods are smaller and shorter in transitional or shallow water
rather than in deep water.

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 The curves are plotted from the following equations:

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 Example
Wave growth is determined by the wind speed. Consider a fetch with its length 24.4 km, wind-
stress factor UA = 22 m/s and constant depth d = 11 m, estimate wave height, Hs, and wave
period, T.

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 THANKS!

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