Stem Waves along a Vertical Wall: Comparison between Monochromatic and Random Waves

This study compares the stem wave characteristics investigated numerically and experimentally between monochromatic and random waves. Most of the previous works have presented measured wave heights only along the wall for the stem wave investigations. However, the lateral distribution of wave heights is also important to understand the whole wave field associated with the stem waves. In the present study, hydraulic experiments are conducted for the stem waves generated by both monochromatic and random waves and the wave height distributions are measured both along and normal to the vertical wall. Then, the characteristics of wave transformation associated with monochromatic and random waves are compared. The distributions of wave heights for the monochromatic and random waves show a typical standing wave pattern in the lateral direction without increasing stem width. However, the nodes of the standing waves for the random wave case are smoothed out due to the superposition of wave components with different wavelengths. In addition, the numerical results are found to agree well with the measured data.