Individual wave height and wave crest distributions based on field measurements from the northern North Sea

摘要

This paper concerns full-scale wave measurements of individual wave heights and crest heights at one location with water depth 190 m in the northern North Sea from 2004 up to date. The surface elevation was recorded by a Saab WaveRadar REX from one location in the northern North Sea. The measured individual wave heights and crest heights have been compared to well-known theoretical distributions. For wave heights, the Rayleigh distribution is found to form a conservative upper bound, whilst the Forristall distribution is considered to show a good accuracy, though somewhat conservative in the most severe sea states. For crest heights, the Rayleigh distribution is found to be nonconservative, whilst the Forristall distributions for long- and short-crested sea both provide reasonable descriptions. Based on the present study, the Forristall distributions for individual wave height and crest heights in long-crested seas are considered to provide the most appropriate descriptions of these measured wave data.