Assignment 1 - CIVIL5505

QUESTION 1

The JONSWAP (join North Sea Wave Project) spectra is an empirical

relationship that defines the distribution of energy with frequency within the
ocean.
The JONSWAP spectrum is effectively a fetch limited version of the
Pierson - Moskowitz spectrum, except the wave spectrum is never fully
developed and may continue to develop due to non-linear wave-wave
interactions for a very long time. Therefore in the JONSWAP spectrum, waves
continue to grow with distance as specified by the alpha term, and the peak in
the spectrum is more pronounced as specified by the gamma term.
The JONSWAP spectrum was developed to extend the PM spectrum to account
for developing seas. It is defined by
4

5 f

J g2 4(f
e
S j ( f )=
e
(2 )4 f 5
a

=0.07, for f f p
=0.09, for f >f p
a=

( f f p )

2 2 f 2p

J =0.076

gF
U2

0.22

( )

F=fetch length
= peak enhancement factore

between 1 and 7.

And typically has a value of 3.3 but can vary

QUESTION 2

a)A15minuteswavemeasurementwasfoundtohaveameanwave
heightof1.6m.Calculatethewaveheight,whichwaslikelytobe
exceededbyonly10%ofthewavesduringtherecordingperiod.
Rayleigh distribution
1
1
Q=
H=2 2 ln ( )
0.1
Q
H
1.6
=
=
=0.638 m
2 2

H=20.638 2 ln

( 0.11 )=2.738 m

b)Alsodeterminetheaverageof

thetop10%ofwaveheight

Therefore
H=5.09

H=5.090.638

c)Listtheassumption

H=3.247 m

youmadetoarriveatyouranswerin2(a)
- Rayleigh distribution suitable for this case
- assuming that water level being sum of many
independent waves
- Narrow banded spectrum
- Stationary

d)Iftheaverageperiodofthewavesoverthesamplingperiodwas9
seconds,whatisexpectedmaximumwaveheightthatwasrecorded?

Number of waves in 15 minutes:(1560)

=100 waves
9

Significantwaveheight
H s=4

H s=40.638

H s=2.552m

ProbabilityofExceedenceQ

Q=

1
=0.01
100

Maximumwaveheight

2 2 ln (

1
1
)=20.638 2 ln
=3.873 m
Q
0.01

( )

QUESTION 3

Fortutorial2Question5(b),repeatthequestionbutthistimeassumethat
thepeakwaveheightperstormfollowsaWeibulldistribution.

Thevalueofisstillunknownthereforeweneedtousetrialanderror
techniqueforvaluetogetstraightlineforourgraph.
InordertoplotagraphwecanrearrangetheWeibullDistributioneqn
givenaboveintothis

0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1

R^2
0.98
36
0.9904
0.9940
0.9956

1.2

0.9958

1.3

0.9951

Referringtothegraphequation

Gradient=1.23294=

=0.8110
Y 1.5664=

=1.2705

In50yearstheStorm=13845

Rearrangingtheeqn

ProbabilityofExceedenceQ
Q=

1
5
=7.2210
13845

Probability(P)

P=17.221 0 =0.9999

Peakwave
1

ln ( 13845 ) 1.2 +1.2705=6.58 m

H =0.8110