EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF WIND-GENERATED WAVES ON WATER CURRENTS

Wind-generated water waves: two overlooked mechanisms?

From research on stratospheric dynamics there has emerged what might prove to be some useful fresh ideas about the problem of water-wave generation by wind. As pointed out in an earlier contribution (1993), water waves can be systematically amplified by two irreversible, ratchet-like mechanisms that depend on spatio-temporal inhomogeneities, such as wind gustiness and wave groupiness. Neither m...

Generalized Stability Analysis of Wind Generated Surface Water Waves

The shear instability mechanism for generation of surface water waves (Miles 1957) is re-examined in light of the nonnormality of the underlying linear operator. The associated eigenproblem and adjoint eigenproblem are solved numerically and a clarification to previous perturbation solutions of the eigenproblem discussed. The optimal excitation problem is solved in the asymptotic limit t → ∞ an...

Turbulent flow structure in experimental laboratory wind-generated gravity waves

Experimental study of internal gravity waves generated by supercritical topography

Oscillatory tides flowing over rough topography on the ocean floor generate internal gravity waves, which are a major source of ocean mixing. Linear inviscid theory can describe waves generated by gentle topography with slopes that are less steep than the propagation angle of the internal waves; such topography is termed subcritical. However, a clear physical picture of internal waves generated...

Reminiscences on the study of wind waves

The wind blowing over sea surface generates tiny wind waves. They develop with time and space absorbing wind energy, and become huge wind waves usually referred to ocean surface waves. The wind waves cause not only serious sea disasters but also take important roles in the local and global climate changes by affecting the fluxes of momentum, heat and gases (e.g. CO2) through the air-sea boundar...