ANALYSIS OF WAVE GROUPS USING SIMULATED ANNEALING

This paper describes an improvement in the method based on Local Approximation using Simulated Annealing with a Stokes II wave model (LASA-II), reported by Medina (2001) for decomposing incident and reflected wave trains in wave records. The new add-in to the LASA-II consists in a fitted Stokes V wave model upgrading LASA-II to LASA-V. This improvement makes possible its application to non-stationary and highly non-linear wave fields. This time-domain method has been applied to analyze wave grouping characteristics of the incident wave trains corresponding to the tests conducted in the Laboratory of Ports and Coasts (LPC) at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) on a 1:50 scale model of a new breakwater for the Port of Gijón (Spain). The results were compared with a well-accepted 3-point least squares method for separating incident and reflected waves (Baquerizo et al., 1997). Further, pressure gauge records measured on the crown wall were analyzed and compared to the incident wave height obtained by the two methods.