Almost extreme waves

Almost Periodic Oscillations and Waves

Extreme waves under Hurricane Ivan.

Hurricane Ivan, a category 4 storm, passed directly over six wave-tide gauges deployed by the Naval Research Laboratory on the outer continental shelf in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Waves were observed with significant wave heights reaching 17.9 meters and maximum crest-to-trough individual wave heights of 27.7 meters (91 feet). Analysis suggests that significant wave heights likely surpas...

The properties of extreme waves

In the safety assessment of both fixed and floating offshore structures it is necessary to ensure that the structure has sufficient strength to withstand the most extreme combination of environmental loads likely to be experienced during the design life. However significant uncertainties remain concerning the characteristics of real, extreme, three-dimensional waves. The research described in t...

Extreme Waves and Ship Design

Recent research has demonstrated that extreme waves, waves with crest to trough heights of 20 to 30 meters, occur more frequently than previously thought. Also, over the past several decades, a surprising number of large commercial vessels have been lost in incidents involving extreme waves. Many of the victims were bulk carriers. Current design criteria generally consider significant wave heig...

Interface waves in almost incompressible elastic materials

We study the problem of two elastic half-planes in contact and the Stoneley interface wave that may exist at the interface between two different elastic materials, emphasis is put on the case when the half-planes are almost incompressible. We show that numerical simulations involving interface waves requires an unexpectedly high number of grid points per wavelength as the materials become more ...