An accurate estimation of the ocean wave directional spectrum at the location of an advancing ship is very useful for the ship master to improve operation and safety in a seaway. Research has been conducted to obtain sea state estimates by the Wave Buoy Analogy. The method deals with processing the ship’s wave-induced responses based on different statistical inferences including parametric and non-parametric approaches.
This paper considers a concept to improve the estimate obtained by the parametric method for sea state estimation. The idea is illustrated by an analysis made on full-scale response measurements carried out on a 9400 TEU container ship. The process of fitting a standard JONSWAP spectrum takes into account an analysis of residuals formed by the difference between measured and estimated amount of energy of the response(s).
A couple of motion responses and also bending moment are considered as the input of the estimation process. A comparison is made between the results and also with some inhand outputs from other estimation sources, e.g., wave radar measurements and sea surface elevation by microwave sensors. The discussed and analyzed procedure could also lead to an automatic selection of response combinations for sea state estimation.
