A new description for highly nonlinear potential water waves is suggested, where weak 3D effects are included as small corrections to exact 2D equations written in conformal variables. Contrary to the traditional approach, a small parameter in this theory is not the surface slope, but it is the ratio of a typical wave length to a large transversal scale along the second horizontal coordinate. A first-order correction for the Hamiltonian functional is calculated, and the corresponding equations of motion are derived for steep water waves over an arbitrary inhomogeneous quasi-1D bottom profile.
An explicit expression in terms of canonical variables is obtained for the Hamiltonian functional determining the fully nonlinear dynamics of two-dimensional potential flows of an ideal fluid with a free surface over an arbitrary nonuniform depth. The canonically conjugate variables are derived from the previously developed non-canonical conformal description of water waves over a strongly undulating bottom [V. P. Ruban, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 70}, 066302 (2004)]. Also an alternative approach to the problem is discussed, which gives weakly nonlinear Hamiltonian models of different orders.
A new type of steady steep two-dimensional irrotational symmetric periodic gravity waves on inviscid incompressible fluid of infinite depth is revealed. We demonstrate that these waves have sharper crests in comparison with the Stokes waves of the same wavelength and steepness. The speed of a fluid particle at the crest of new waves is greater than their phase speed.
The shoaling of surface gravity waves has been acknowledged as a mechanism of rogue wave formation. This problem is generally reduced to water waves passing over a step, but non-equilibrium physics allows finite slopes to be considered. Using non-homogeneous spectral analysis of a spatially varying energy density ratio we describe the dependence of the amplification as a function of the slope steepness. Increasing the slope increases the amplification of rogue wave probability, until this amplification saturates at steep slopes. In contrast, the increase of the down slope of a subsequent de-sh…
Horizontal Lagrangian velocities and accelerations at the surface of steep water-waves are studied by Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) for gradually increasing crest heights up to the inception of a spilling breaker. Localized steep waves are excited using wavemaker-generated Peregrine breather-type wave trains. Actual crest and phase velocities are estimated from video recorded sequences of the instantaneous wave shape as well as from surface elevation measurements by wave gauges. Effects of nonlinearity and spectral width on phase velocity, as well as relation between the phase velocity a…
Observations show that maximally-steep breaking water wave crest speeds are much slower than expected. We report a wave-crest slowdown mechanism generic to unsteady propagating deep water wave groups. Our fully nonlinear computations show that just prior to reaching its maximum height, each wave crest slows down significantly and either breaks at this reduced speed, or accelerates forward unbroken. This finding is validated in our extensive laboratory and field observations. This behavior appears to be generic to unsteady dispersive wave groups in other natural systems.
In the present Letter we use the Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of the Navier-Stokes equation for a two-phase flow (water and air) to study the dynamics of the modulational instability of free surface waves and its contribution to the interaction between ocean and atmosphere. If the steepness of the initial wave is large enough, we observe a wave breaking and the formation of large scale dipole structures in the air. Because of the multiple steepening and breaking of the waves under unstable wave packets, a train of dipoles is released and propagate in the atmosphere at a height comparable …
In the wind-driven wave regime, the Miles mechanism gives an estimate of the growth rate of the waves under the effect of wind. We consider the case where this growth rate, normalised with respect to the frequency of the carrier wave, is of the order of the wave steepness. Using the method of multiple scales, we calculate the terms which appear in the nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation in this regime of fast-growing waves. We define a coordinate transformation which maps the forced NLS equation into the standard NLS with constant coefficients, that has a number of known analytical soliton so…
We revisit the classical but as yet unresolved problem of predicting the breaking onset of 2D and 3D irrotational gravity water waves. This study focuses on domains with flat bottom topography and conditions ranging from deep to intermediate depth (depth to wavelength ratio from 1 to 0.2). Our calculations based on a fully nonlinear boundary element model investigated geometric, kinematic and energetic differences between maximally recurrent and marginally breaking waves in focusing wave groups. Maximally steep non-breaking (maximally recurrent) waves are clearly separated from marginally brea…
A recently developed method has been extended to a nonlocal equation arising in steady water wave propagation in two dimensions. We obtain analyic approximation of steady water wave solution in two dimensions with rigorous error bounds for a set of parameter values that correspond to heights slightly smaller than the critical. The wave shapes are shown to be analytic. The method presented in quite general and does not assume smallness of wave height or steepness and can be readily extended to other interfacial problems involving Laplace's equation.
In the framework of the canonical model of hydrodynamics, where fluid is assumed to be ideal and incompressible, waves are potential, two-dimensional, and symmetric, the authors have recently reported the existence of a new type of gravity waves on deep water besides well studied Stokes waves (Phys. Rev. Lett., 2002, v. 89, 164502). The distinctive feature of these waves is that horizontal water velocities in the wave crests exceed the speed of the crests themselves. Such waves were found to describe irregular flows with stagnation point inside the flow domain and discontinuous streamlines nea…
The estimate of individual wave run-up is especially important for tsunami warning and risk assessment as it allows to evaluate the inundation area. Here as a model of tsunami we use the long single wave of positive polarity. The period of such wave is rather long which makes it different from the famous Korteweg-de Vries soliton. This wave nonlinearly deforms during its propagation in the ocean, what results in a steep wave front formation. Situations, when waves approach the coast with a steep front are often observed during large tsunamis, e.g. 2004 Indian Ocean and 2011 15 Tohoku tsunamis.…
A specific, genuinely three-dimensional mechanism of rogue wave formation, in a late stage of the modulational instability of a perturbed Stokes deep-water wave, is recognized through numerical experiments. The simulations are based on fully nonlinear equations describing weakly three-dimensional potential flows of an ideal fluid with a free surface in terms of conformal variables. Spontaneous formation of zigzag patterns for wave amplitude is observed in a nonlinear stage of the instability. If initial wave steepness is sufficiently high ($ka>0.06$), these coherent structures produce rogue wa…
The kinematic properties of unsteady highly non-linear 3D wave groups have been investigated using a numerical wave tank. Although carrier wave speeds based on zero-crossing analysis remain within +-7% of linear theory predictions, crests and troughs locally undertake a systematic cyclical leaning from forward to backward as the crests/troughs transition through their maximum amplitude. Consequently, both crests and troughs slow down by approximately 15% of the linear velocity, in sharp contrast to the predictions of finite amplitude Stokes steady wavetrain theory. Velocity profiles under the …
It is demonstrated that a standard coupled-mode theory can successfully describe weakly-nonlinear gravity water waves in Bragg resonance with a periodic one-dimensional topography. Analytical solutions for gap solitons provided by this theory are in a reasonable agreement with accurate numerical simulations of exact equations of motion for ideal planar potential free-surface flows, even for strongly nonlinear waves. In numerical experiments, self-localized groups of nearly standing water waves can exist up to hundreds of wave periods. Generalizations of the model to the three-dimensional case …
Long waves in shallow water propagating over a background shear flow towards a sloping beach are being investigated. The classical shallow-water equations are extended to incorporate both a background shear flow and a linear beach profile, resulting in a non-reducible hyperbolic system. Nevertheless, it is shown how several changes of variables based on the hodograph transform may be used to transform the system into a linear equation which may be solved exactly using the method of separation of variables. This method can be used to investigate the run-up of a long wave on a planar beach inclu…
The nonlinear stage of the modulational (Benjamin - Feir) instability of unidirectional deep water surface gravity waves is simulated numerically by the firth-order nonlinear envelope equations. The conditions of steep and breaking waves are concerned. The results are compared with the solution of the full potential Euler equations and with the lower order envelope models (the 3-order nonlinear Schrodinger equation and the standard 4-order Dysthe equations). The generalized Dysthe model is shown to exhibit the tendency to re-stabilization of steep waves with respect to long perturbations.
A new Hamiltonian formulation for the fully nonlinear water-wave problem over variable bathymetry is derived, using an exact, vertical series expansion of the velocity potential, in conjunction with Luke's variational principle. The obtained Euler-Lagrange equations contain infinite series and can rederive various existing model equations upon truncation. In this paper, the infinite series are summed up, resulting in two exact Hamiltonian equations for the free-surface elevation and the free-surface potential, coupled with a time-independent horizontal system of equations. The Dirichlet to Neu…
We investigate the validity and robustness of the Barthelemy et al. (2018) breaking wave onset prediction framework for surface gravity water waves in arbitrary water depth, including shallow water breaking over varying bathymetry. We show that the Barthelemy et al. (2018) breaking onset criterion, which they validated for deep and intermediate water depths, also segregates breaking crests from non-breaking crests in shallow water, with subsequent breaking always following the exceedance of their proposed generic breaking threshold. We consider a number of representative wave types, including …
In 1880, Stokes famously demonstrated that the singularity that occurs at the crest of the steepest possible water wave in infinite depth must correspond to a corner of $120^\circ$. Here, the complex velocity scales like $f^{1/3}$ where $f$ is the complex potential. Later in 1973, Grant showed that for any wave away from the steepest configuration, the singularity $f = f^*$ moves into the complex plane, and is of order $(f-f^*)^{1/2}$ (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 59, 1973, pp. 257-262). Grant conjectured that as the highest wave is approached, other singularities must coalesce at the crest so as to c…
The investigation of dynamics of intense solitary wave groups of collinear surface waves is performed by means of numerical simulations of the Euler equations and laboratory experiments. The processes of solitary wave generation, reflection from a wall and collisions are considered. Steep solitary wave groups with characteristic steepness up to $kA_{cr} = 0.3$ (where $k$ is the dominant wavenumber, and $A_{cr}$ is the crest amplitude) are concerned. They approximately restore the structure after all the considered interactions. In the course of the interaction with the wall and collisions the …
The issue of accounting of the wave breaking phenomenon in direct numerical simulations of oceanic waves is discussed. It is emphasized that this problem is crucial for the deterministic description of waves, and also for the dynamical calculation of extreme wave statistical characteristics, such as rogue wave height probability, asymmetry, etc. The conditions for reproducible simulations of irregular steep waves within the High Order Spectral Method for the potential Euler equations are identified. Such non-dissipative simulations are considered as the reference when comparing with the simula…
A stochastic second-order wave model is applied to assess the statistical properties of wave orbital velocity in random sea states below the water surface. Directional spreading effects as well as the dependency of the water depth are investigated by means of a Monte-Carlo approach. Unlike for the surface elevation, sub-harmonics dominate the second-order contribution to orbital velocity. We show that a notable set-down occurs for the most energetic and steepest groups. This engenders a negative skewness in the temporal evolution of the orbital velocity. A substantial deviation of the upper an…
The data of simultaneous measurements of the surface displacement produced by propagating planar waves in experimental flume and of the dynamic pressure beneath the waves are compared with the theoretical predictions based on different approximations for modulated potential gravity waves. Regular and irregular wave sequences in intermediate depths are considered. The efficiency of different models for reconstruction the pressure field from the known surface displacement time series (the direct problem) is investigated. A new two-component theory for weakly modulated weakly nonlinear waves is p…
Using the FLUIDICS (Fluid Dynamics in Space) experiment in the International Space Station, turbulence of capillary waves at the air-water interface is experimentally investigated in weightlessness. Capillary waves are excited in a spherical container partially filled with water and undergoing sinusoidal or random oscillations. The fluctuations of the interface, recorded with two capacitive probes are analyzed by means of the frequency power spectrum of wave elevation. For high enough forcing amplitudes, we report power-law spectra with exponents close to the prediction of weak wave turbulence…
Long-time evolution of a weakly perturbed wavetrain near the modulational instability threshold is investigated within the framework of the compact Zakharov equation for unidirectional deep-water waves, recently derived by Zakharov & Dyachenko (2011). Multiple-scale solutions reveal that a perturbation to a slightly unstable uniform wavetrain of steepness μslowly evolves according to a Nonlinear Schrodinger equation. In particular, for small carrier wave steepness μ<μ_1~0.27 the perturbation dynamics is of focusing type and the long-time behavior is characterized by Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence…
The problem of existence of stable nonlinear groups of gravity waves in deep water is revised by means of laboratory and numerical simulations with the focus on intense waves. Wave groups with steepness up to $A_{cr} ω_m^2 /g \approx 0.30$ are reproduced in laboratory experiments ($A_{cr}$ is the wave crest amplitude, $ω_m$ is the mean angular frequency and $g$ is the gravity acceleration). We show that the groups remain stable and exhibit neither noticeable radiation nor structural transformation for more than 60 wave lengths or about 15-30 group lengths. These solitary wave patterns differ f…
