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Superharmonic instability, homoclinic torus bifurcation and water-wave breaking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2004

THOMAS J. BRIDGES
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, UK

Abstract

The superharmonic instability is pervasive in large-amplitude water-wave problems and numerical simulations have predicted a close connection between it and crest instabilities and wave breaking. In this paper we present a nonlinear theory, which is a generic nonlinear consequence of superharmonic instability. The theory predicts the nonlinear behaviour witnessed in numerics, and gives new information about the nonlinear structure of large-amplitude water waves, including a mechanism for noisy wave breaking.

Type
Papers
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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