Abstract:
Severe typhoons usually induce extreme wave and current coupled environments in sea strait areas, which poses a significant threat to structural safety of offshore structures, such as buildings and bridges. The focus of existing research has been mainly on the collinear wave-current scenarios, but less on the actual wave-current conditions in the strait. This paper addressed the issue by establishing a wave-current coupled metocean simulation model to investigate the characteristics of wave currents and their intersection angles in Qiongzhou Strait induced by historical typhoons. The environmental data were obtained by simulating 51 typhoons between 1987 and 2018. A three-dimensional joint probability model of wave height, current speed and the intersection angle and the associated environmental contour model were then constructed. The extreme values of wave and current parameters were finally investigated. The research reveals that extreme wave height and current speed in the strait exhibit non-collinear characteristics. In extreme scenarios, the probability of wave-current intersection angles between 0°-30° and 150°-180° can reach up to 80%. Extreme wave height predominantly occurs when the current and wave are in opposite directions, while extreme current speed appears when the wave and current propagate in the same direction. The extreme values of wave and current parameters depend on the extraction time for a given return period.