Title
Three-dimensional wave focusing in fully nonlinear wave models
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Date of Original Version
12-1-2001
Abstract
Wave frequency focusing has been used in two-dimensional (2D) laboratory wave tanks to simulate very large waves at sea, by producing large energy concentration at one point of space and time. Here, three-dimensional (3D) frequency/directional energy focusing is simulated in a fully nonlinear wave model (Numerical Wave Tank; NWT), and shown to produce very large waves. This method alone, however, cannot explain why and how large waves occur in nature. Self-focusing, i.e., the slow growth of 3D disturbances in an initially regular wave train, is shown to also play a major role in the formation of "freak waves". Self-focusing is studied in a more efficient space-periodic nonlinear model, in which long term wave propagation can be simulated. The combination of directional/frequency focusing and self-focusing, and resulting characteristics of large waves produced, could be studied within the same NWT.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Ocean Wave Measurement and Analysis
Volume
2
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Brandini, Carlo, and Stéphan T. Grilli. "Three-dimensional wave focusing in fully nonlinear wave models." Proceedings of the International Symposium on Ocean Wave Measurement and Analysis 2, (2001): 1102-1111. doi: 10.1061/40604(273)112.