Great Lakes Wave Height Radar System.
Abstract
A study of the wave induced springing of the Great Lakes ore carrier M/V STEWART J. CORT is being done in two phases. Phase one is the installation, test and evaluation of a shipboard wave measurement system. Phase two is the measurement and correlation of the waves encountered by the vessel and the vessel's response. This report describes the wave measurement system and presents some of the test results. The wave measurement system consists of two radars used to profile the surface waves and two sets of accelerometers to record the motion of the vessel. Thirty-one data records, each about twenty to thirty minutes long, were recorded during the test period of phase one. Eight of these data sets were reduced to power spectral densities (PSD) in terms of the wave encounter frequencies. Each PSD value has about fifty degrees of freedom. The results show the significant wave height (SWH) as measured by the two radars to agree within about ten percent. The visual estimates of the SWH show a larger variation of agreement relative to the radar derived SWH. One buoy measurement was available to compare with the radar results. The buoy derived SWH (0.5m) was about one-half the radar measurement. This is due to a light off shore wind that day that resulted in small SWH for both the buoy and the radars as well as a shorter fetch for the development of waves at the buoy site as compared with the ship location. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA083647
Entities
People
- Donald L. Hammond
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory