Ocean Wave Forecasting.

Abstract : The purpose of this research was to develop a general numerical program for integrating the Boltzman integral representing the third-order nonlinear energy transfer in a surface-wave spectrum. As described the research proposal, a detailed study of the nonlinear energy transfer is an essential first step for developing realistic numerical wave prediction models, since it has been established in a number of recent field experiments that the nonlinear transfer has a strong influence on the shape and evolution of a growing wind-sea spectrum. Existing integration programs are computationally expensive and not sufficiently general to treat an arbitary wave spectrum with frequency dependent, asymmetric directional spreading functions. The purpose of the research was therefore to develop a more efficient, general integration method which could be used for extensive numerical experiments. (Author)