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Experimental study of freak waves due to three-dimensional island terrain in random wave

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Abstract

An experimental study is carried out for waves passing an isolated reef terrain in a wave tank. A three-dimensional model of a representative and isolated reef terrain in the West Pacific is built. Random wave trains with various periods and wave heights are generated by a wave maker using the improved JONSWAP spectrum. It is observed that there are different kinds of generation processes and waveforms of freak waves. The freak wave factor Hm/Hs (where Hm is the maximum wave height of wave series, and Hs is significant wave height) is analyzed in detail, in terms of the skewness, kurtosis and water depth, as well as the relationship between freak wave height Hfr and skewness. The freak wave factor Hm/Hs is found to be in positive correlation with the kurtosis, while larger Hfr tends to be related with bigger skewness. The rapid variation of water depth, such as slope and seamount, contributes to the occurrence probability of freak waves.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to China Ship Scientific Research Center for providing the data of the reef terrain in the West Pacific. Great thanks are also given to the team of State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering in Dalian University of Technology who supported a lot for the experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Naval Architecture, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Li Zou, Aimin Wang & Yuguo Pei

  2. State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Li Zou

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Ship and Deep-Sea Exploration, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Li Zou

  4. School of Mathematic Science, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Zhen Wang

  5. China Ship Scientific Research Center, Wuxi, 214082, China

    Xiaolong Liu

Authors
  1. Li Zou
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  2. Aimin Wang
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  3. Zhen Wang
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  4. Yuguo Pei
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  5. Xiaolong Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Li Zou.

Additional information

Foundation item: The Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology under contract No. QNLM20160RP0402; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 51522902 and 51579040; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under contract No. DUT17ZD233; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China under contract No. [2016]22.

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Zou, L., Wang, A., Wang, Z. et al. Experimental study of freak waves due to three-dimensional island terrain in random wave. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 38, 92–99 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-019-1390-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-019-1390-x

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