WAVES - depending on Wind, Time and Fetch,
and Current and Depth near the Coast
This program calculates the height of ocean-waves H depending upon the strength of the wind and the time of its duration,
and also depending upon the fetch (range of open water). Furthermore wavelength L and period T are calculated [1].
For waves approaching the coast, currents may become important.
Negative values for ebb-currents against the waves, positive for flood towards the coast.
The model for waves in shallow water (depth D small against wavelength L: Hmax= 0.14*L*tanh(2πD/L)
assumes [2] here that the waves have been generated by wind in deep water,
approaching shallow water near the coast. This may cause dangerous breakers.
In a completely flat large shallow area, wave-heights will not exceed Hmax= 0.88*depth [2]. Theoretical
height of a breaking wave is marked by "~X".
Also the maximum speed of the waves is limited by the depth.
- The precision is about 5%
but there are numerous parameters like wave-heights obtained only approximately by observations.
Windspeed on input is limited to 65 knots, other parameters similarly. -
The program has been tested to reproduce data given in refs.[1],[2] and[3], as explained inside the program.
Conversions: 1 knot=0.51 m/s, 1 m/s = 1.94 knots.
References:
[1]Document WMO702.pdf (chap.4) of World Meteorological Organisation.
[2]a) Miche, "Le pouvoir reflechissant des ouvrages maritimes", in
Annales des ponts et chaussees, 1951, p.285-319.- b) Also 1944, same journal, eq.(55).
[3]U.S. Coastal Engineering Technical Note CETN-IV-9 by Jane McKee Smith 1997.
Copyright
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the license or any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License
(www.gnu.org/licenses/) for more details.
If errors are encountered, kindly inform: info@ocean-navigation.de
- Last update 23. dec. 2022.