A study on kinematics characteristics of freak wave

Based on the 3rd-order Stokes wave theory, the speed of freak waves is formulated in terms of the period and the wave height. Finite modified wave steepness gives rise to a significant enhancement of the nonlinear contributions to the freak wave speed in comparison with the 3rd-order Stokes wave theory. For a fix modified wave steepness, the estimated amplification of the nonlinear contributions due to the deviation from the 3rd-order Stokes wave theory is 0.22 similar to 0.99. In addition, the velocity and acceleration fields are also documented in detail. In the present simulation, the horizontal velocities are smaller than the wave speed, and the freak wave exhibits a maximal horizontal velocity up to 37% of the wave speed and a maximal vertical acceleration up to about 20% of the gravitational acceleration.