Asymptotic interpretation of the Miles mechanism of wind-wave instability

DOI10.1017/JFM.2022.441zbMATH Open1500.76032arXiv2107.06844OpenAlexW3181766349MaRDI QIDQ5085113FDOQ5085113

Authors: A. F. Bonfils, Dhrubaditya Mitra, W. Moon, J. S. Wettlaufer 

Publication date: 27 June 2022

Published in: Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: When wind blows over water, ripples are generated on the water surface. These ripples can be regarded as perturbations of the wind field, which is modelled as a parallel inviscid flow. For a given wavenumber $k$, the perturbed streamfunction of the wind field and the complex phase speed are the eigenfunction and the eigenvalue of the so-called Rayleigh equation in a semi-infinite domain. Because of the small air-water density ratio, $h{o}_{ma}/h{o}_{mw}equivepsilon<<1$, the wind and the ripples are weakly coupled, and the eigenvalue problem can be solved perturbatively. At the leading order, the eigenvalue is equal to the phase speed $c_0$ of surface waves. At order $epsilon$, the eigenvalue has a finite imaginary part, which implies growth. Miles (1957) showed that the growth rate is proportional to the square modulus of the leading-order eigenfunction evaluated at the so-called critical level $z=z_c$, where the wind speed is equal to $c_0$ and the waves extract energy from the wind. Here, we construct uniform asymptotic approximations of the leading-order eigenfunction for long waves, which we use to calculate the growth rate as a function of $k$. In the strong wind limit, we find that the fastest growing wave is such that the aerodynamic pressure is in phase with the wave slope. The results are confirmed numerically.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.06844

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zbMATH Keywords

eigenvalueRayleigh equationcritical layeruniform asymptotic approximationair-sea interactionleading-order eigenfunctionripple generation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Stability and instability of geophysical and astrophysical flows (76E20) Asymptotic methods, singular perturbations applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M45) Hydrology, hydrography, oceanography (86A05)

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Cited In (7)

• Nonlinear fast growth of water waves under wind forcing
• Evidence of the critical layer mechanism in growing wind waves
• Solution of Rayleighs instability equation for arbitrary wind profiles
• Flow-driven interfacial waves: an inviscid asymptotic study
• Wind-generated waves on a water layer of finite depth
• On alpha stable distribution of wind driven water surface wave slope
• On phase velocity and growth rate of wind-induced gravity-capillary waves

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