The influence of directional spreading on rogue waves triggered by abrupt depth transitions

Journal Article (2023)
Author(s)

Tianning Tang (University of Oxford)

Charlotte Moss (The University of Manchester)

Samuel Draycott (The University of Manchester)

Harry B. Bingham (Technical University of Denmark (DTU))

Ton S. van den Bremer (TU Delft - Environmental Fluid Mechanics, University of Oxford)

Yan Li (University of Bergen)

Thomas A.A. Adcock (University of Oxford)

Research Group
Environmental Fluid Mechanics
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2023.737 Final published version
More Info
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Publication Year
2023
Language
English
Research Group
Environmental Fluid Mechanics
Volume number
972
Article number
R2
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292
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Institutional Repository
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Abstract

An increased number of rogue waves, relative to standard distributions, can be induced by unidirectional waves passing over abrupt decreases in water depth. We investigate this phenomenon in a more general setting of multidirectional waves. We examine the influence of the directionality on the occurrence probability of rogue waves using laboratory experiments and fully nonlinear potential flow simulations. Based on the analysis of the statistics of random waves, we find that directional spreading reduces the formation probability of rogue waves relative to unidirectional seas. Nevertheless, for typical values of directional spreading in the ocean (15∘–30∘), our numerical results suggest that there is still a significant enhancement to the number of rogue waves just beyond the top of a depth discontinuity.