A New Probabilistic Wave Breaking Model for Dominant Wind-sea Waves
Based on the Gaussian Field Theory
Abstract
This paper presents a novel method for obtaining the probability wave of
breaking Pb of deep water, dominant wind-sea waves (that is, waves made
of the energy within +-30% of the peak wave frequency) derived from
Gaussian wave field theory. For a given input wave spectrum we
demonstrate how it is possible to derive a joint probability density
function between wave phase speed (c) and horizontal orbital velocity at
wave crest (u) from which a model for Pb can be obtained. A non-linear
kinematic wave breaking criterion consistent with the Gaussian framework
is further proposed. Our model would allow, therefore, for application
of the classical wave breaking criterion (that is, wave breaking occurs
if u/c > 1) in spectral wave models which, to the authors’
knowledge, has not been done to date. Our results show that the proposed
theoretical model has errors in the same order of magnitude as six other
historical models when assessed using three field datasets. With
optimization of the proposed model’s single free parameter, it can
become the best performing model for specific datasets. Although our
results are promising, additional, more complete wave breaking datasets
collected in the field are needed to comprehensively assess the present
model, especially in regards to the dependence on phenomena such as
direct wind forcing, long wave modulation and wave directionality.