Nonlinear sharpening during superposition of surface waves

D Chalikov; AV Babanin

Journal article

Nonlinear sharpening during superposition of surface waves

D Chalikov, AV Babanin

Ocean Dynamics | SPRINGER HEIDELBERG | Published : 2016

DOI: 10.1007/s10236-016-0965-8

Abstract

Two-dimensional direct wave model is used for demonstration of the role of reversible interactions which probably is the main process leading to breaking. One-dimensional model was used for performing of thousands of exact short-term simulations of evolution of two superposed wave trains with different steepness, and wavenumbers were performed to investigate the effect of wave crests merging. Nonlinear sharpening of the merging crests is demonstrated. It is suggested that such effect may be responsible for appearance of the typical sharp crests of surface waves, as well as for wave breaking.

University of Melbourne Researchers

Alexander Babanin Author

Related Projects (1)

COUPLING TROPICAL CYCLONE AND CLIMATE PHYSICS WITH OCEAN WAVES

It is argued that without accounting for the wave effects directly, the physics of large-scale air-sea interactions is inaccurate and incomp..

Grants

Awarded by Office of Naval Research

Funding Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mrs. O. Chalikova for her assistance in preparation of the manuscript. The work was supported by RSF, Grant No. 14-05-00422. AVB acknowledges support of the US Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-13-1-0278.