Experimental Design and Analysis of the Evolution of Unidirectional Wind Wave Interaction

The greatest threat to floating structures at sea is the huge waves formed with extreme meteorological conditions. However, the lack of a systematic large-scale facility for sea–air interaction limits the further development of wind–wave interaction. Therefore, we have designed and developed an extreme wave experimental facility with wind forcing. We performed unidirectional random wave experiments to investigate the wind impact on waves. The results suggest that the effect of wind on wave height distribution is significant. The wave height distribution cannot be well described by the Rayleigh distribution, especially in cases with a large Benjamin–Feir index (BFI). It is worth noting that the case with the largest BFI in the experiment did not increase with the wind forcing as expected. We attempt to provide a possible explanation for this issue by understanding the differences between the facility specification. We consider that the dimensionless length of the tank and the quality of turbulent wind can have a significant impact on wave evolution, especially the probability of extreme events.