An experimental and numerical study of the spatial evolution of unidirectional nonlinear water-wave groups

Spatial evolution of nonlinear narrow-spectrum deep-water wave groups is studied experimentally in a wave tank. The experimental results are compared with the computations based on the unidirectional Zakharov equation and the Dysthe model. The very good agreement between the computational results based on both models with the experiments prompted an attempt to perform simulations for a wider initial spectral width, that formally violate the assumptions adopted in the derivation of the Dysthe model. The accuracy of the results based on the Dysthe model is checked against the solutions of the Zakharov equation, which is free of restrictions on the spectral width. Conclusions regarding the domain of validity of the Dysthe model are drawn. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.