Alison Raby

Physical modelling of extreme waves: issues and applications

This presentation explores how civil engineers can estimate extreme wave loading for ocean and coastal engineering design. It will show examples of extreme waves that have been captured using field instrumentation, observation or simply by post-event analysis. The NewWave representation of extremes will be described, comparing them to field data from wave buoy measurements acquired by the Plymouth Coastal Observatory. The discussion will then extend to laboratory modelling of the extremes, highlighting potential inaccuracies in some shallow water experiments. Finally, the presentation will describe two applications of extreme wave modelling undertaken in the COAST Laboratory: wave overtopping on a coastal structure and wave impacts on a rock lighthouse.