Law of spreading of the crest of a breaking wave

Yves Pomeau (1) , Thimotée Jamin (2) , Michael Le Bars (2) , Patrice Le Gal (2) , Basile Audoly (3)

1 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l'ENS
2 IRPHE - Institut de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Equilibre
3 LMM - Laboratoire de modélisation en mécanique

In a wide range of conditions, ocean waves break. This can be seen as the manifestation of a singularity in the dynamics of the fluid surface, moving under the effect of the fluid motion underneath. We show that, at the onset of breaking, the wave crest expands in the spanwise direction as the square root of time. This is first derived from a theoretical analysis and then compared with experimental findings. The agreement is excellent.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Yves Pomeau, Thimotée Jamin, Michael Le Bars, Patrice Le Gal, Basile Audoly. Law of spreading of the crest of a breaking wave. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2008, 464, pp.1851. ⟨10.1098/rspa.2008.0024⟩. ⟨hal-00426015⟩