scholarly journals Global ship accidents and ocean swell-related sea states

Author(s):  
Zhiwei Zhang ◽  
Xiao-Ming Li

Abstract. With the increased frequency of shipping activities, navigation safety has become a major concern, especially when economic losses, human casualties and environmental issues are considered. As a contributing factor, sea state conditions play a significant role in shipping safety. However, the types of dangerous sea states that trigger serious shipping accidents are not well understood. To address this issue, we analyzed the sea state characteristics during ship accidents that occurred in poor weather or heavy seas based on a ten-year ship accident dataset. The sea state parameters, including the significant wave height, the mean wave period and the mean wave direction, obtained from numerical wave model data were analyzed for selected ship accidents. The results indicated that complex sea states with the co-occurrence of wind sea and swell conditions represent threats to sailing vessels, especially when these conditions include close wave periods and oblique wave directions.

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 2041-2051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiwei Zhang ◽  
Xiao-Ming Li

Abstract. With the increased frequency of shipping activities, navigation safety has become a major concern, especially when economic losses, human casualties and environmental issues are considered. As a contributing factor, the sea state plays a significant role in shipping safety. However, the types of dangerous sea states that trigger serious shipping accidents are not well understood. To address this issue, we analyzed the sea state characteristics during ship accidents that occurred in poor weather or heavy seas based on a 10-year ship accident dataset. Sea state parameters of a numerical wave model, i.e., significant wave height, mean wave period and mean wave direction, were analyzed for the selected ship accident cases. The results indicated that complex sea states with the co-occurrence of wind sea and swell conditions represent threats to sailing vessels, especially when these conditions include similar wave periods and oblique wave directions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Jesbin George ◽  
V. Sanil Kumar ◽  
R. Gowthaman ◽  
Jai Singh

The nearshore wave characteristics and variations in littoral drift (longshore sediment transport; LST) are estimated based on different approaches for four years along the Vengurla coast, with comparable wind-sea and swell energy assessed. The waverider buoy-measured data at 15 m water depth is utilized as the input wave parameters along with the reanalysis model data, and the numerical wave model Delft-3D is used for estimating the nearshore wave parameters. The relative contribution of wind-seas and swells on LST rates are specifically examined. The clear prevalence of west-southwest waves implies the prevalence of south to north longshore sediment transport with net transport varying from 0.19–0.37 × 105 m3/yr. LST is strongly dependent on the breaker angle and a small change in the wave direction substantially alters the LST, and hence reanalysis/model data with coarse resolutions produce large errors (~38%) in the LST estimate. The annual gross LST rate based on integral wave parameters is only 58% considering the wind-seas and swells separately, since the wind-sea energy is comparable to swell energy, and the direction of these two systems differs significantly.


Author(s):  
M. Bernardino ◽  
M. Gonçalves ◽  
C. Guedes Soares

Abstract An improved understanding of the present and future marine climatology is necessary for numerous activities, such as operation of offshore structures, optimization of ship routes and the evaluation of wave energy resources. To produce global wave information, the WW3 wave model was forced with wind and ice-cover data from an RCP8.5 EC-Earth system integration for two 30-year time slices. The first covering the periods from 1980 to 2009 represents the present climate and the second, covering the periods from 2070–2099, represents the climate in the end of the 21st century. Descriptive statistics of wind and wave parameters are obtained for different 30-year time slices. Regarding wind, magnitude and direction will be used. For wave, significant wave height (of total sea and swell), mean wave period, peak period, mean wave direction and energy will be investigated. Changes from present to future climate are evaluated, regarding both mean and extreme events. Maps of the theses statistics are presented. The long-term monthly joint distribution of significant wave heights and peak periods is generated. Changes from present to future climate are assessed, comparing the statistics between time slices.


Author(s):  
N. Tran ◽  
D. Vandemark ◽  
B. Chapron ◽  
S. Labroue ◽  
H. Feng ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Vieira da Silva ◽  
Paula Gomes da Silva ◽  
Rafael Sangoi Araujo ◽  
Antonio Henrique da Fontoura Klein ◽  
Elírio E. Toldo Jr.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a new approach for estimating run-up on embayed beaches based on a study of the microtidal coast of Itapocorói Bay, Southern Brazil using the surf similarity parameter and wave height at break location. The four step methodology involved: 1) direct wave measurement (34 days), wave run-up measurement (19 days at 7 points within the bay), measurement of bathymetry and beach topography in the entire bay; 2) tests on available formulae to calculate wave run-up; 3) use of the SWAN spectral wave model to simulate wave parameters at breaking at each wave run-up measurement point and; 4) development of a new formula/approach to assess wave run-up on embayed beaches (in both exposed and protected areas). During the experiments the significant wave height varied from 0.5 m to 3.01 m, the mean wave period from 2.79 s to 7.76 s (the peak period varied between 2.95 s and 17.18 s), the mean wave direction from 72.5° to 141.9° (the peak direction varied from 39.2° to 169.8°) and the beach slope (tan β) from 0.041 to 0.201. The proposed formula is in good agreement with measured data for different wave conditions and varying degrees of protection. The analysis demonstrates that although R² varies from 0.52 to 0.75, the wave run-up distribution over the measurements agreed well with the proposed model, as shown by quantile-quantile analysis (R²=0.98 to 0.99). The errors observed in individual cases may be related to errors of measurements, modeling and to non-linear processes in the swash zone, such as infragavity waves.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 2556-2564 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Foster ◽  
Ning Li ◽  
Kwok Fai Cheung

AbstractOcean waves have a profound impact on navigation, offshore operations, recreation, safety, and the economic vitality of a nation’s maritime and coastal communities. This study demonstrates that ships equipped with geodetic GPS and a radar gauge can provide accurate estimates of sea state. The Research Vessel (R/V) Kilo Moana recorded 1-Hz data for the entire period of a 10-day cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. Solving for precise kinematic positions for the ship and combining these solutions with the ranges from the ship to the sea surface provided by the radar gauge, it was possible to retrieve 1-Hz estimates of the sea surface elevation along the cruise track. Converting these into estimates of significant wave height, strong agreement was found with wave buoy measurements and hindcast wave data. Comparison with buoy data indicates the estimates have errors on the order of 0.22 m, or less than 11% of the wave height. Using wave model predictions of the dominant directions, the data were processed further to correct for the Doppler shift and to estimate the dominant wave period. Although relatively noisy in locations where the predicted wave directions are expected to be poor, in general these estimates also show a good agreement with the wave buoy observations and hindcast wave estimates. A segment of the cruise that formed a circuit allowed for testing the consistency of the ship-based estimates and for determining a dominant wave direction, which was found to agree closely with model predictions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Pasi ◽  
A. Orlandi ◽  
L. F. Onorato ◽  
S. Gallino

Abstract. During the last days of 2009 and the first days of 2010, a wide and deep low pressure system over Western Europe generated a very extended and strong southerly pressure gradient on the whole Western Mediterranean Sea with a resulting very rough to high sea state. Over the Ligurian Sea (North Western Mediterranean) the resulting sea state was a combination of a very tuned (in both frequency and direction) swell coming from the south-west, with nearly oceanic peak wave period, and a broader north-westerly wind sea with shorter period. This kind of sea state, not extreme in terms of significant wave height, caused unusual widespread damages to Ligurian coastal structures. In this study, authors investigated the structure of such a combined sea state by analysing numerical weather prediction outputs coming from atmospheric and wave models and comparing them with data coming from ondametric buoys and meteorological stations located in the Ligurian Sea area. As a result, it was found that the forecasting model chain almost correctly predicted the wave height in a first phase, when the sea state was only due to the first south-westerly swell peak, while significantly underestimated the combined sea state, when also the second north-westerly wind sea developed and interacted with the first one. By analysing the structure of directional wave spectra forecasted by the operational wave model and measured by the buoys, authors have attempted to find out the reasons for model deficiencies in forecasting the time evolution of significant parameters characterising the sea state.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3625
Author(s):  
Jon Hardwick ◽  
Ed B. L. Mackay ◽  
Ian G. C. Ashton ◽  
Helen C. M. Smith ◽  
Philipp R. Thies

Numerical modeling of currents and waves is used throughout the marine energy industry for resource assessment. This study compared the output of numerical flow simulations run both as a standalone model and as a two-way coupled wave–current simulation. A regional coupled flow-wave model was established covering the English Channel using the Delft D-Flow 2D model coupled with a SWAN spectral wave model. Outputs were analyzed at three tidal energy sites: Alderney Race, Big Roussel (Guernsey), and PTEC (Isle of Wight). The difference in the power in the tidal flow between coupled and standalone model runs was strongly correlated to the relative direction of the waves and currents. The net difference between the coupled and standalone runs was less than 2.5%. However, when wave and current directions were aligned, the mean flow power was increased by up to 7%, whereas, when the directions were opposed, the mean flow power was reduced by as much as 9.6%. The D-Flow Flexible Mesh model incorporates the effects of waves into the flow calculations in three areas: Stokes drift, forcing by radiation stress gradients, and enhancement of the bed shear stress. Each of these mechanisms is discussed. Forcing from radiation stress gradients is shown to be the dominant mechanism affecting the flow conditions at the sites considered, primarily caused by dissipation of wave energy due to white-capping. Wave action is an important consideration at tidal energy sites. Although the net impact on the flow power was found to be small for the present sites, the effect is site specific and may be significant at sites with large wave exposure or strong asymmetry in the flow conditions and should thus be considered for detailed resource and engineering assessments.


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