STOCHASTIC EXTREME WAVES GENERATOR FOR THE MID RIO DE LA PLATA ESTUARY NORTHERN COASTS

Abstract

Whenever the failure of a maritime work has important economic, social or environmental consequences, its design and verification should be performed using probabilistic techniques (e.g. Losada 2001). For breakwaters the dominant agents in hydraulic failure modes are sea-level and waves, so in order to perform Level III probabilistic verifications it is necessary to develop simulation models of these agents. This paper presents the development of a methodology for the simulation of time series of extreme agents (waves and sea levels) and its application to the northern coast of the mid Río de la Plata estuary. This development poses particular challenges related to the own characteristics of the estuary and to the available information.