Influence of the Maximum Wave Height in the Norwegian Sea

WEN Cheng; TAO Aifeng; LI Shuo; YAN Jin; CAO Guangsui

Abstract：The maximum wave height is used as an important indicator of wave strength and dangerous degree.It is not only the basis to calculate the design wave,but also has important effect on oceanic forecast.The maximum wave height formula based on the Rayleigh distribution cannot reflect the non-linear influence,such as wave steepness and spectral width,and thus there is a deviation between the observed value and the theoretically maximum wave height.The wave numerical model using phase-average method can get significant wave height through wave spectrum,but cannot get the maximum wave height.This paper analyses 10-year wave data of in-situ measurements from the ocean weather ship in the Norwegian Sea,gets wave spectrum,and further calculates the influence of wave steepness and spectral width on the maximum wave height.A method was suggested to replace the measured wave number and then the influence of wave steepness and spectral width on the maximum wave height was analyzed.The results show that the Hmax/Hs decreases gradually with the increase of wave steepness or spectral width.A formula was proposed to obtain the maximum wave height and spectral width,which gets reasonable fitting effect.