Conclusion

It is found that the occurrence probability of larger wave heights increases with the increasing of the value of kurtosis. The experimental data show nice agreement with the Edgeworth-Rayleigh distribution within $\ensuremath{\mu_3}\ll 1$ and $\ensuremath{\mu_4}\le 4$. However, the wave height distributions of the field data show discrepancies with the Edgeworth-Rayleigh distribution rather than the Rayleigh distribution, although the crest distribution show nice agreement with the Edgeworth-Rayleigh distribution. It should be investigated a non-Gaussian model of wave height distribution with broad banded spectrum for further investigation.