Extreme Ocean Waves

Em Pelinovsky Christian Kharif

Editors

Extreme Ocean Waves

Second Edition

123

Editors
Em Pelinovsky
Institute of Applied Physics
Nizhny Novgorod State Technical
University
Higher School of Economics
Nizhny Novgorod
Russia

ISBN 978-3-319-21574-7
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-21575-4

Christian Kharif
Ecole Centrale Marseille (ECM)
Institut de Recherche sur les Phnomnes
Hors Equilibre (IRPHE)
Marseille
France

ISBN 978-3-319-21575-4

(eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015944750

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Preface

Reports of extreme wave events in seas and oceans come about almost each week.
Extreme water waves investigated in this book involve mainly rogue waves, but
tsunami waves and storm waves are also considered. Several catalogues of extreme
events like rogue waves observed in the World Ocean have been recently published.1 For instance, during 20062010, 106 events can be classied as anomalous
high short-lived waves. They occurred in deep and shallow waters, and also on the
coast. Perhaps, one of the last events occurred on February 17, 2014 with ship
Marco Polo on its route from the Azores to its home port in Tilbury, England, and
it was carrying 735 passengers and 349 crew. A large wave hit the side of the ship
between 1 and 2 p.m. local time at adverse sea conditions and killed one passenger
and injured the second one.
There are a number of physical mechanisms that focus the water wave energy
into a small area and produce the occurrence of extreme waves called freak or rogue
waves. These events may be due to wave instability (modulational or Benjamin-Feir
instability), chaotic behavior, dispersion (frequency modulation), refraction (presence of variable currents or bottom topography), soliton interactions, crossing seas,
windwave interaction, etc. These giant waves are a real danger to ships and
platforms, causing accidents with human losses. Tsunami waves are generally due
to seismic motion of the sea bottom and less frequently due to underwater or
subaerial landslides. Herein, the emphasis is put on tsunami waves generated by

Liu, P.C. A chronology of freaque wave encounters. Geozica, 2007, vol. 24, 5770.
Didenkulova, I.I., Slunyaev, A.V., Pelinovsky, E.N., and Kharif, Ch. Freak waves in 2005. Natural
Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. 2006, vol. 6, 10071015.
Nikolkina, I. and Didenkulova, I. Rogue waves in 20062010. Natural Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.
2011. vol. 11, 29132924.
Baschek, B., and Imai, J. 2011. Rogue wave observations off the US West Coast. Oceanography.
2011, vol. 24, 158165.
Nikolkina, I. and Didenkulova, I. Catalogue of rogue waves reported in media in 20062010.
Natural Hazards. 2012. vol. 61, 9891006.

vi

Preface

subaerial collapse of granular media. These waves may cause important damages in
coastal areas and loss of life.
Extreme waves have been intensively studied during the past decades, and the
European Geophysical Union organizes each year a special section Extreme
Waves. This book contains invited papers written mainly on the basis of works
presented during the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union in
Vienna, plus ve new invited papers which concern more recent researches on the
present subject. In the paper Rogue Waves in Higher Order Nonlinear Schrdinger
Models by C.M. Schober and A. Calini, it is demonstrated that a chaotic sea state
appears to be an important mechanism for both generation and increased likelihood
of rogue waves. In the paper Freak-Waves: Compact Equation Versus Fully
Nonlinear One A.I. Dyachenko, D.I. Kachulin, and V.E. Zakharov derive an
approximate equation which is compared to the fully nonlinear system. The compact
equation is shown to describe correctly strongly nonlinear phenomena such as rogue
waves due to modulational instability. L. Fernandez, M. Onorato, J. Monbaliu, and
A. Toffoli in their paper Occurrence of Extreme Waves in Finite Water Depth
discuss laboratory experiments in a large wave basin, numerical simulations with a
truncated form of the potential Euler equations, and eld experiments at the Lake
George experimental site (Australia) to assess the role of third-order nonlinearity,
namely the modulational instability, on water wave statistics. Existence of various
shapes of rogue waves in shallow water is discussed in the paper Modeling of
Rogue Wave Shapes in Shallow Water by T. Talipova, C. Kharif, and
J.P. Giovanangeli. They pointed out that variable-polarity shape of a rogue wave is
more probable than only one crest or one trough. The occurrence of extreme waves
in shallow water is investigated in the paper Non-Gaussian Properties of Shallow
Water Waves in Crossing Seas by A. Toffoli, M. Onorato, A.R. Osborne, and
J. Monbaliu. They show that the interaction of two crossing wave trains generates
steep and high amplitude peaks, thus enhancing the deviation of the surface elevation from the Gaussian statistics. The relation between observations and freak wave
theories is examined in the paper Searching for Factors that Limit Observed
Extreme Maximum Wave Height Distributions in the North Sea by G. Burgers,
F. Koek, H. de Vries, and M. Stam. Observations indicate that steepness is a limiting
factor for extreme wave height and at shallow water locations, extreme waves are not
more frequently observed than at deep water locations. Average wave conditions,
their variations, and extreme wave storms in the Baltic Sea are studied, based on
long-term time series in the paper Extremes and Decadal Variations in the Baltic
Sea Wave Conditions by T. Soomere. Signicant wave heights, HS, more than 4 m
in the Baltic Sea occur with a probability of about 1 % and extreme wave conditions
with HS > 7 m approximately twice in a decade. The overall recorded maximum
signicant wave height is 8.2 m. The possibility of appearance of freak waves on a
beach is analyzed in the paper Runup of Long Irregular Waves on Plane Beach by
I. Didenkulova, E. Pelinovsky, and A. Sergeeva. It is shown that the average runup
height of waves with a wide spectrum is higher than that of waves with a narrow
spectrum. In the paper Numerical Study for Run-Up of Breaking Waves of
Different Polarities on a Sloping Beach by A. Rodin, I. Didenkulova, and

Preface

vii

E. Pelinovsky the transformation and run-up of breaking solitary waves propagating

on a sloping bottom is investigated numerically within the framework of the nonlinear shallow water equations (St-Venant equations). For high wave amplitude they
studied how the wave transforms into a bore (shock wave). In the paper Tsunami
Waves Generated by Cliff Collapse: Comparison Between Experiments and
Triphasic Simulations S. Viroulet, A. Sauret, O. Kimmoun, and C. Kharif investigate tsunami waves due to subaerial or submarine landslides both experimentally
and numerically. They discuss recent experimental results on granular collapse in
water and the influence of the physical parameters on the amplitude of the tsunami
waves; such waves of landslide origin cannot be predicted. Waves of huge amplitudes can appear in the deepest layers of the ocean and the possible shapes of such
waves in two-layer fluid is described in the paper An Analytical Model of Large
Amplitude Internal Solitary Waves by N.I. Makarenko and J.L. Maltseva. Special
analysis of nonlinear resonances between water waves is given in the paper
Symbolic Computation for Nonlinear Wave Resonances by E. Tobisch
(Kartashova), C. Raab, Ch. Feurer, G. Mayrhofer, and W. Schreiner. They argue the
important role of nonlinear resonances in the wave dynamics that can be used to
simplify the governing equations.
The book is written for specialists in the elds of fluid mechanics, applied
mathematics, nonlinear physics, physical oceanography, and geophysics, and also
for students learning these subjects.
Em Pelinovsky
Christian Kharif

Contents

Rogue Waves in Higher Order Nonlinear Schrdinger Models . . . . . .

Constance M. Schober and Annalisa Calini

Freak-Waves: Compact Equation Versus Fully Nonlinear One . . . . . .

A.I. Dyachenko, D.I. Kachulin and V.E. Zakharov

23

Occurrence of Extreme Waves in Finite Water Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Leandro Fernandez, Miguel Onorato, Jaak Monbaliu
and Alessandro Toffoli

45

Modeling of Rogue Wave Shapes in Shallow Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

T. Talipova, C. Kharif and J.P. Giovanangeli

63

Non-Gaussian Properties of Shallow Water Waves

in Crossing Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alessandro Toffoli, Miguel Onorato, A.R. Osborne and Jaak Monbaliu

75

Searching for Factors that Limit Observed Extreme Maximum

Wave Height Distributions in the North Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gerrit Burgers, Frits Koek, Hans de Vries and Martin Stam

93

Extremes and Decadal Variations in the Baltic Sea

Wave Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tarmo Soomere

107

Runup of Long Irregular Waves on Plane Beach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ira Didenkulova, Efim Pelinovsky and Anna Sergeeva
Numerical Study for Run-Up of Breaking Waves
of Different Polarities on a Sloping Beach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Artem Rodin, Ira Didenkulova and Efim Pelinovsky

141

155

ix

Contents

Tsunami Waves Generated by Cliff Collapse: Comparison

Between Experiments and Triphasic Simulations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
S. Viroulet, A. Sauret, O. Kimmoun and C. Kharif

173

An Analytical Model of Large Amplitude Internal Solitary Waves. . . .

Nikolay I. Makarenko and Janna L. Maltseva

191

Symbolic Computation for Nonlinear Wave Resonances . . . . . . . . . . .

E. Tobisch (Kartashova), C. Raab, Ch. Feurer, G. Mayrhofer
and W. Schreiner

203

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

235

Contributors

Gerrit Burgers Rijkswaterstaat Water, Verkeer en Leefomgeving, Lelystad,

The Netherlands
Annalisa Calini Department of Mathematics, College of Charleston, Charleston,
SC, USA
Hans de Vries Royal
The Netherlands

Netherlands

Meteorological

Institute,

De

Bilt,

Ira Didenkulova Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University n.a. R.E.

Alekseev, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Institute of Applied Physics, Nizhny
Novgorod, Russia; Marine Systems Institute, Tallinn University of Technology,
Tallinn, Estonia
A.I. Dyachenko Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics RAS, Chernogolovka,
Moscow Region, Russia; Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
Leandro Fernandez Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven, Heverlee,
Belgium
Ch. Feurer Research Institute for Symbolic Computation (RISC), Johannes
Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria
J.P. Giovanangeli Aix-Marseille Universit, CNRS, Marseille, France
D.I. Kachulin Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
C. Kharif Aix-Marseille Universit, CNRS, Ecole Centrale Marseille, Marseille,
France
O. Kimmoun Aix-Marseille Universit, CNRS, Ecole Centrale Marseille,
Marseille, France

xi

xii

Contributors

Frits Koek Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, The Netherlands

Nikolay I. Makarenko Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, Novosibirsk,
Russia
Janna L. Maltseva Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, Novosibirsk, Russia
G. Mayrhofer Research Institute for Symbolic Computation (RISC), Johannes
Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria
Jaak Monbaliu Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia;
Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium
Miguel Onorato Universit di Torino, Turin, Italy
A.R. Osborne Universit di Torino, Turin, Italy
Em Pelinovsky Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University n.a. R.E.
Alekseev, Higher School of Economics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Institute of
Applied Physics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Special Research Bureau for
Automation of Marine Researches, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
C. Raab Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (RICAM),
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria
Artem Rodin Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University n.a. R.E. Alekseev,
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Institute of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of
Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
A. Sauret Surface du Verre Et Interfaces, UMR 125 CNRS/Saint-Gobain,
Aubervilliers, France
Constance M. Schober Department of Mathematics, University of Central
Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
W. Schreiner Research Institute for Symbolic Computation (RISC), Johannes
Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria
Anna Sergeeva Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University n.a. R.E. Alekseev,
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Institute of Applied Physics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Tarmo Soomere Institute of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology,
Tallinn, Estonia
Martin Stam Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, The
Netherlands
T. Talipova Institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Nizhny
Novgorod Technical State University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
E. Tobisch (Kartashova) Institute for Analysis, Johannes Kepler University Linz,
Linz, Austria

Contributors

xiii

Alessandro Toffoli Swinburne University of Technology, Swinburne, VIC,

Australia; Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium
S. Viroulet School of Mathematics and Manchester Centre for Nonlinear
Dynamics, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
V.E. Zakharov Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia; Department of
Mathematics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Physical Institute of RAS,
Moscow, Russia; Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Moscow, Russia