The influence of rainflow filtering on the distributions of characteristic wave parameters (Q5959767)

This paper addresses the problem of measurements of the sea-surface elevation by means of the rainflow filter introduced by \textit{I. Rychlik} [Int. J. Fatigue 18, 429-438 (1996)] instead of the traditional band-pass filters. The influence of rainflow filter is investigated by studying the distributions for characteristic wave parameters, in particular the joint distribution of crest height and period. Regression approximation method proposed by \textit{G. Lindgren} and \textit{I. Rychlik} [Int. Stat. Rev. 59, No. 2, 195-225 (1991; Zbl 0790.60046)] is used to calculate the distribution. It is shown that a rainflow filter yields distributions closer to the `true' one than a band-pass filtered version, and it is claimed that the rainflow-filter technique is more advantageous to use when filtering records.