Modulational instability and wave amplification in finite water depth

Abstract

The modulational instability of a uniform wave train to side band perturbations is one of the most plausible mechanisms for the generation of rogue waves in deep water. In a condition of finite water depth, however, the interaction with the sea floor generates a wave-induced current that subtracts energy from the wave field and consequently attenuates the instability mechanism. As a result, a plane wave remains stable under the influence of collinear side bands for relative depths kh≤1.36 (where k is the wavenumber of the plane wave and h is the water depth), but it can still destabilise due to oblique perturbations. Using direct numerical simulations of the Euler equations, it is here demon..