WAVE-WAVE INTERACTIONS, CURRENT-WAVE INTERACTIONS AND RESULTING EXTREME WAVES AND BREAKING WAVES

Abstract

The influence of an opposing current on highly non-linear transient breaking waves in deep water is described quantitatively from experiments. 3 new parameters that describe crest front steepness and wave asymmetry are introduced. Further, joint probability density distributions are obtained from an analysis of field data containing nearly 25000 storm waves. Thus, a tool is provided from which estimates for probabilities for occurrences of steep breaking waves in deep water, may be obtained.