Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW FLUIDS
Volume 4, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.4.074801
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Funding
- European Research Council under the European Union [647018-WATU]
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The nonlinear dynamics of waves at the sea surface is believed to be ruled by the weak-turbulence framework. In order to investigate the nonlinear coupling among gravity surface waves, we developed an experiment in the Coriolis facility, which is a 13-m-diam circular tank. An isotropic and statistically stationary wave turbulence of average steepness of 10% is maintained by two wedge wave makers. The space-and time-resolved wave elevation is measured using a stereoscopic technique. Wave-wave interactions are analyzed through third-and fourth-order correlations. We investigate specifically the role of bound waves generated by nonresonant three-wave coupling. Specifically, we implement a space-time filter to separate the dynamics of free waves (i.e., following the dispersion relation) from the bound waves. We observe that the free-wave dynamics causes weakly resonant four-wave correlations. A weak level of correlation is actually the basis of the weak-turbulence theory. Thus our observations support the use of the weak turbulence to model gravity wave turbulence as is currently being done in the operational models of wave forecasting. Although in the theory bound waves are not supposed to contribute to the energy cascade, our observation raises the question of the impact of bound waves on dissipation and thus on energy transfers as well.
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