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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Measurements of Waves in a Wind-wave Tank Under Steady and Time-varying Wind Forcing
Published on: February 13, 2018
Observation of the nonlinear dispersion relation and spatial statistics of wave turbulence on the surface of a fluid
Eric Herbert1, Nicolas Mordant, Eric Falcon
1Matière et Systèmes Complexes (MSC), Université Paris Diderot, CNRS (UMR 7057), 75 013 Paris, France.
Abstract:
We report experiments on gravity-capillary wave turbulence on the surface of a fluid. The wave amplitudes are measured simultaneously in time and space by using an optical method. The full space-time power spectrum shows that the wave energy is localized on several branches in the wave-vector-frequency space. The number of branches depends on the power injected within the waves. The measurement of the nonlinear dispersion relation is found to be well described by a law suggesting that the energy transfer mechanisms involved in wave turbulence are restricted not only to purely resonant interaction between nonlinear waves. The power-law scaling of the spatial spectrum and the probability distribution of the wave amplitudes at a given wave number are also measured and compared to the theoretical predictions.
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