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Excitation of capillary waves by longer waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

Kenneth M. Watson  and
John B. Mcbride
Kenneth M. Watson
Affiliation:
Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093-0213, USA
John B. Mcbride
Affiliation:
Science Applications International Corporation, 10260 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, USA
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Abstract

At low wind speeds the shortest capillary waves appear to be generated hydrodynamically and not by the wind. This phenomenon is investigated using a Hamiltonian representation of the surface wave dynamics. A perturbation technique of Kolmogorov is used to transform away non-resonant, nonlinear interactions. Resonant interactions are treated by the Hasselmann transport equation, applied to the transformed variables. Calculated spectra show reasonable agreement with the observations of Jähne & Riemer (1990).

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 250 , May 1993 , pp. 103 - 119
Copyright
© 1993 Cambridge University Press

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