Multi-Layer Modeling of Wave Groups From Deep to Shallow Water

Author(s):  
Patrick Lynett ◽  
Philip L.-F. Liu ◽  
Hwung-Hweng Hwung ◽  
Wen-Son Ching

A set of model equations for water wave propagation is derived by piecewise integration of the primitive equations of motion through N arbitrary layers. Within each layer, an independent velocity profile is determined. With N separate velocity profiles, matched at the interfaces of the layers, the resulting set of equations have N+1 free parameters, allowing for an optimization with known analytical properties of water waves. The optimized two-layer model equations show good linear wave characteristics up to kh ≈8, while the second-order nonlinear behavior is well captured to kh ≈6. The three-layer model shows good linear accuracy to kh ≈14, and the four layer to kh ≈20. A numerical algorithm for solving the model equations is developed and tested against nonlinear deep-water wave-group experiments, where the kh of the carrier wave in deep water is around 6. The experiments are set up such that the wave groups, initially in deep water, propagate up a constant slope until reaching shallow water. The overall comparison between the multi-layer model and the experiment is quite good, indicating that the multi-layer theory has good nonlinear, as well has linear, accuracy for deep-water waves.

2009 ◽  
Vol 624 ◽  
pp. 339-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID P. NICHOLLS

In this paper we take up the question of the spectral stability of travelling water waves from a new point of view, namely that the spectral data of the water-wave operator linearized about fully nonlinear Stokes waves is analytic as a function of a height parameter. This observation was recently made rigorous by the author using a boundary perturbation approach which is amenable to approximation by a stable high-order numerical method. Using this algorithm, we investigate, for both super- and sub-harmonic disturbances, the evolution of the spectrum, in particular the ‘first collision’ of eigenvalues and the ‘smallest singularity’ in the perturbation expansion. The former is studied in response to MacKay & Saffman's (1986) work on the water-wave problem which demonstrated that instability can only arise after the collision of two eigenvalues of opposite Krein signature. However, we present results which show, quite explicitly, that eigenvalue collision (even of opposite Krein signature) is insufficient to conclude instability. With this in mind, we have identified a new criterion for the loss of spectral stability, namely the appearance of a singularity in the expansion of the spectral data (as a function of the height parameter mentioned above). We give some heuristic reasons why this should be so, and then provide complete numerical spectral stability results for four representative depths, two above (h = ∞, 2) and two below (h = 1, 1/2) Benjamin's (1967) critical value, hc ≈ 1.363, above which the Benjamin–Feir instability emerges. We find that the strongest (two-dimensional) instability appears to be among the long waves, but we notice that there is a sharp difference between ‘shallow-water’ and ‘deep-water’ waves in that first eigenvalue collision and smallest expansion singularity are synonymous for shallow water, while this is not so in deep water where ‘windows of stability’ beyond the first eigenvalue collision exist.


Most practical predictions of water-wave propagation use linear approximations based on the concepts of ‘geometric’ rays and group velocity. Although this is successful, or adequate, in many instances, there are phenomena that can only be fully understood in terms of nonlinear effects. The recent boom in soliton-related studies has shed much light on the nonlinear aspects of wave propagation in shallow water. However, for waves on deeper water some of the nonlinear effects are only now being appreciated. A few, such as the focusing pattern of steady wave fields have direct parallels in shallow water; while others, such as deep-water soliton solutions, have their own rich structure. In deep or shallow water, wavebreaking is the most eye-catching development of a wave field. With the exception of the classical turbulent bore or hydraulic jump, our present models are still some way from giving a quantitative appreciation of important effects such as energy dissipation and momentum transfer, but causes of breaking for deep-water waves are now a little better understood.


1968 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 779-788 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Ffowcs Williams ◽  
D. L. Hawkings

Small amplitude waves on a shallow layer of water are studied from the point of view used in aerodynamic sound theory. It is shown that many aspects of the generation and propagation of water waves are similar to those of sound waves in air. Certain differences are also discussed. It is concluded that shallow water simulation can be employed in the study of some aspects of aerodynamically generated sound.


2009 ◽  
Vol 637 ◽  
pp. 443-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
ASHISH RAVAL ◽  
XIANYUN WEN ◽  
MICHAEL H. SMITH

A numerical simulation is performed to study the velocity, streamlines, vorticity and shear stress distributions in viscous water waves with different wave steepness in intermediate and deep water depth when the average wind velocity is zero. The numerical results present evidence of ‘clockwise’ and ‘anticlockwise’ rotation of the fluid at the trough and crest of the water waves. These results show thicker vorticity layers near the surface of water wave than that predicted by the theories of inviscid rotational flow and the low Reynolds number viscous flow. Moreover, the magnitude of vorticity near the free surface is much larger than that predicted by these theories. The analysis of the shear stress under water waves show a thick shear layer near the water surface where large shear stress exists. Negative and positive shear stresses are observed near the surface below the crest and trough of the waves, while the maximum positive shear stress is inside the water and below the crest of the water wave. Comparison of wave energy decay rate in intermediate depth and deep water waves with laboratory and theoretical results are also presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Haixiao Jing ◽  
Yanyan Gao ◽  
Changgen Liu ◽  
Jingming Hou

Understanding the propagation of landslide-generated water waves is of great help against tsunami hazards. In order to investigate the effects of landslide shapes on the far-field leading wave generated by a submerged landslide at a constant depth, three linear wave models with different degrees of dispersive properties are employed in this study. The linear fully dispersive model is then validated by comparing the results against the experimental data available for landslides with a low Froude number. Three simplified shapes of landslides with the same volume, which are unnatural for a body of incoherent material, are used to investigate the effects of landslide shapes on the far-field properties of the generated leading wave over a flat seabed. The results show that the far-field leading crest over a constant depth is independent of the exact landslide shape and is invalid at a shallow water depth. Therefore, the most popular non-dispersive model (also called the shallow water wave model) cannot be used to reproduce the phenomenon. The weakly dispersive wave model can predict this phenomenon well. If only the leading wave is considered, this model is accurate up to at least μ = h0/Lc = 0.6, where h0 is the water depth and Lc denotes the characteristic length of the landslide.


2007 ◽  
Vol 576 ◽  
pp. 27-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANN E. GARGETT ◽  
JUDITH R. WELLS

During extended deployment at an ocean observatory off the coast of New Jersey, a bottom-mounted five-beam acoustic Doppler current profiler measured large-scale velocity structures that we interpret as Langmuir circulations filling the entire water column. These circulations are the large-eddy structures of wind-wave-driven turbulent flows that occur episodically when a shallow water column experiences prolonged strong wind forcing. Many observational characteristics agree with former descriptions of Langmuir circulations in deep water. The three-dimensional velocity field reveals quasi-organized structures consisting of pairs of surface-intensified counter-rotating vortices, aligned approximately downwind. Maximum downward velocities are stronger than upward velocities, and the downwelling region of each cell, defined as a pair of vortices, is narrower than the upwelling region. Maximum downward vertical velocity occurs at or above mid-depth, and scales approximately with wind speed. The estimated crosswind scale of cells is roughly 3–6 times their vertical scale, set under these conditions by water depth. The long axis of the cells appears to lie at an angle ∼10°–20° to the right of the wind. A major difference from deep-water observations is strong near-bottom intensification of the downwind ‘jets’ found typically centred over downwelling regions. Accessible observational features such as cell morphology and profiles of mean velocities, turbulent velocity variances, and shear stress components are compared with the results of associated large-eddy simulations (reported in Part 2) of shallow water flows driven by surface stress and the Craik–Leibovich vortex forcing generally used to represent generation of Langmuir cells. A particularly sensitive diagnostic for identification of Langmuir circulations as the energy-containing eddies of the turbulent flow is the depth trajectory of invariants of the turbulent stress tensor, plotted in the Lumley ‘triangle’ corresponding to realizable turbulent flows. When Langmuir structures are present in the observations, the Lumley map is distinctly different from that of surface-stress-driven Couette flow, again in agreement with the large-eddy simulations (LES). Unlike the LES, observed velocity fields contain two distinct and significant scales of variability, documented by wavelet analysis of observational records of vertical velocity. Variability with periods of many minutes is that expected from Langmuir cells drifting past the instrument at the slowly time-varying crosswind velocity. Shorter period variability, of the order of 1–2 min, has roughly the observed periodicity of surface wave groups, suggesting a connection with the wave groups themselves and/or the wave breaking associated with them in high wind conditions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 2291-2297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yakup Yildirim ◽  
Emrullah Yasar ◽  
Abdullahi Rashid Adem

2014 ◽  
Vol 761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Bridges

AbstractA new theory for the emergence of dispersion in shallow water hydrodynamics in two horizontal space dimensions is presented. Starting with the key properties of uniform flow in open-channel hydraulics, it is shown that criticality is the key mechanism for generating dispersion. Modulation of the uniform flow then leads to model equations. The coefficients in the model equations are related precisely to the derivatives of the mass flux, momentum flux and mass density. The theory gives a new perspective – from the viewpoint of hydraulics – on how and why key shallow water models like the Korteweg–de Vries equation and Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equations arise in the theory of water waves.


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