Based on historical wind fields in the Bohai Sea, a sequence of annual extremal wave heights is produced with numerical wave models for deep-water and shallow water. The design wave heights with different return periods for the nearest deep-water point and for the shallow water point are estimated on the basis of P-III type, Weibull distribution, and Gumbel distribution; and the corresponding values for the shallow water point are also estimated based on the HISWA model with the input of design wave heights for the nearest deep-water point. Comparisons between design wave heights for the shallow water point estimated on the basis of both distribution functions are HISWA model show that the results from different distribution functions scatter considerably, and influenced strongly by return periods; however, the results from the HISWA model are convergent, that is, the influence of the design wave heights estimated with different distribution functions for deep water is weakened, and the estimated values decrease for long return periods and increase for short return periods. Therefore, the numerical wave model gives a more stable result in shallow water design wave estimation because of the consideration of the effect of physical processes which occur in shallow water.
In order to obtain high order spectral moments, the residual moment M(w(n))(i) = integral(0)(wn) w(i)S(w)dw, as proposed by Denis s, is presented for approximate estimation of spectral moment m(i) = integral(0)(infinity) w(i)S(w)dw. Glazman's partial averaging idea is discussed. It is pointed out that Glazman's method and definition of non-dimensional spectral moment can not be used to estimate spectral moments for engineering purposes and that method is not supported by theory and computation. The non-dimensional spectral moment of PM spectrum, which should be expressed as [GRAPHICS] is related to wind speed. The 0 - 8th moments of PM spectrum are estimated for wind speeds of 10, 20 and 30 m/s and some discussions are given.
