The 11th International Conference on Coasts, Ports and Marine Structures (ICOPMAS 2014)

Tehran, Iran, 24-26 Nov. 2014

Assessment of Extreme Wave Height in Chabahar Region, North of Gulf of

Oman

Hasan Imani1, Madjid Abbaspour2, Bahareh Kamranzad 3, Gholamreza Amirinia4

Key Words: Extreme wave height analysis, Weibull&Gumbel distribution, Return level confidence
interval, SWAN model, Chabahar Bay

1. Introduction
Characterization of the extreme values of a variable such as wave height is required before
designing the coastal and offshore structures, e.g. for designing wind turbine support
structures and foundations or for verifying the long-term stability of their foundations against
scour. The present study aimes to investigate the long term wave analysis and validation of the
result with the measured buoy wave data to simulate the extreme wave height for different
return periods of the wave height in Chabahar. However, due to lack of the measured wave
parameters, SWAN wave model was firstly applied which is widely used for wind wave
hindcasting and forecasting. In order to generate the time series of wave characteristics,
ECMWF (European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts) wind field was utilized
covering a period of 10 years (2001-2010). Regarding to calibration of the important
parameters in the SWAN model, previous studies (Kameranzad et al. [1, 2], Saket and Etemad-
Shahidi [3], Moieni and Etemad-Shahidi [4]) were reviewed and appropriate parameters for the
region were adopted. Based on these researches, a combination of whitecapping dissipation
and bottom friction factors was used to calibrate the SWAN model. In the other hand, the
accuracy of the model outputs and measured wave data were evaluated to choose the extreme
wave height data set based on the peaks over threshold. Second, the best distribution was
selected based on the goodness-of-fit test among the distribution candidates. Finally, all
uncertainties such as sample variability, hindcast error and others were accounted in the
confidence of the design extreme wave heights corresponding to different return periods.

2. Methods
In this paper, a third generation numerical model SWAN and ECMWF wind fields were used
to produce the time series of wave characteristics over 10 years from 2001 to 2010 for a location

1
MSc- Sharif University of Technology- Hassan_eimany@mech.sharif.ir
2
Professor- Sharif University of Technology- abbpor@sharif.edu
3
Assistant Professor- Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science-
Kamranzad@inio.ac.ir
4
PHD candidate- Florida State University, USA- ga13h@my.fsu.edu
in the northern coasts of Oman Sea. This model is based on wave spectrum concept and the
governing equation for the Cartesian coordinate can be defined as [5]:
     S
N  Cx N  C y N  C N  C N  (1)
t x y   
Here N represents the wave action density spectrum. The terms on the left-hand side also in
order show the temporal change of N, the propagation of N in geographical x and y space, the
shifting effect of the relative frequency due to variations in depth and currents and the last term
on the left-hand side of the equation indicates the depth and current-induced refraction. The
term S on the right-hand side illustrates the effects of the generation by wind, dissipation (by
white-capping, depth induced wave breaking and bottom friction) and nonlinear wave–wave
interactions.
After selecting the extreme wave height data set from the peaks over threshold, the extreme wave
height prediction can be done by Goda method (1988) [6]. The general procedure to perform
this method is:
 The extreme data set are ranked in descending order.
 Fitting the ranked wave heights to the candidates (Weibull, Gumbel).
 Extrapolation the best-fit to calculate design wave height based on different return
period.
 Determination the confidence of the design extreme wave heights corresponding to all
countable uncertainties.
  x  B K 
F  Fx ( x)  P( X  x)  1  exp   
  A  
: Weibull distribution (2)
 
  x  B 
F  Fx ( x)  P( X  x)  exp   exp    : Gumbel distribution
A  
(3)
 

3. Result and discussion

Goda method is used for determination of the Weibull and Gumbel distribution parameters
from 721 independent waves defined by the obtained threshold of 1 m. The distributions with
influence of uncertainties on wave height having different return period is studied and both
distributions showed similar or comparable wave height for the study area since there is no
multiple storm event in a year. All of result diagrams are plotted in main paper.

Fig. 1) Comparison between time series of modeled and measured parameters

Fig. 2) Fitting peaks over threshold to Gumbel and Weibull distributions

Fig. 3) Comparision of fitting by Gumbel and Weibull distribution

 Fig. 4) Design wave height corresponding to Gumbel and Weibull distribution

4. Conclusion
In this study, extreme wave height along the Chabahar zone of the Gulf of Oman was invested.
This region is the southeastern coast of Iran and has been identified as a sensitive marine area
[3]. A long term wave hindcast data set covering 10 years (2001-2010) obtained from a
numerical modeling. The wave model SWAN was utilized to simulate wave characteristics.
After calibration and verification of the model, wave height assessment between modeled and
observed data showed a very good agreements. Moreover, wave parameters investigation
indicates a majority wave height between 0.5 and 1.5 m and main wave direction was also
found the SSE. Finally, extreme wave height values were calculated for different return periods
and it showed that the extreme wave height for 100 years return period is 2.4544 m.

References
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