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Linking reduced breaking crest speeds to unsteady nonlinear water wave group behavior
M L Banner1, X Barthelemy2, F Fedele3
1School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Abstract:
Observed crest speeds of maximally steep, breaking water waves are much slower than expected. Our fully nonlinear computations of unsteadily propagating deep water wave groups show that each wave crest approaching its maximum height slows down significantly and either breaks at this reduced speed, or accelerates forward unbroken. This previously noted crest slowdown behavior was validated as generic in our extensive laboratory and field observations. It is likely to occur in unsteady dispersive nonlinear wave groups in other natural systems.
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