No Arabic abstract
We consider the stability of periodic gravity free-surface water waves traveling downstream at a constant speed over a shear flow of finite depth. In case the free surface is flat, a sharp criterion of linear instability is established for a general class of shear flows with inflection points and the maximal unstable wave number is found. Comparison to the rigid-wall setting testifies that free surface has a destabilizing effect. For a class of unstable shear flows, the bifurcation of nontrivial periodic traveling waves of small-amplitude is demonstrated at any wave number. We show the linear instability of small nontrivial waves bifurcated at an unstable wave number of the background shear flow. The proof uses a new formulation of the linearized water-wave problem and a perturbation argument. An example of the background shear flow of unstable small-amplitude periodic traveling waves is constructed for an arbitrary vorticity strength and for an arbitrary depth, illustrating that vorticity has a subtle influence on the stability of water waves.
In this paper, we study the number of traveling wave families near a shear flow $(u,0)$ under the influence of Coriolis force, where the traveling speeds lie outside the range of $u$. Let $beta$ be the Rossby number. If the flow $u$ has at least one critical point at which $u$ attains its minimal (resp. maximal) value, then a unique transitional $beta$ value exists in the positive (resp. negative) half-line such that the number of traveling wave families near $(u,0)$ changes suddenly from finite one to infinity when $beta$ passes through it. If $u$ has no such critical points, then the number is always finite for positive (resp. negative) $beta$ values. This is true for general shear flows under a technical assumption, and for flows in class $mathcal{K}^+$ unconditionally. The sudden change of the number of traveling wave families indicates that nonlinear dynamics around the shear flow is much richer than the non-rotating case, where no such traveling waves exist.
The well-known Stokes waves refer to periodic traveling waves under the gravity at the free surface of a two dimensional full water wave system. In this paper, we prove that small-amplitude Stokes waves with infinite depth are nonlinearly unstable under long-wave perturbations. Our approach is based on the modulational approximation of the water wave system and the instability mechanism of the focusing cubic nonlinear Schrodinger equation.
We consider the linearized instability of 2D irrotational solitary water waves. The maxima of energy and the travel speed of solitary waves are not obtained at the highest wave, which has a 120 degree angle at the crest. Under the assumption of non-existence of secondary bifurcation which is confirmed numerically, we prove linear instability of solitary waves which are higher than the wave of maximal energy and lower than the wave of maximal travel speed. It is also shown that there exist unstable solitary waves approaching the highest wave. The unstable waves are of large amplitude and therefore this type of instability can not be captured by the approximate models derived under small amplitude assumptions. For the proof, we introduce a family of nonlocal dispersion operators to relate the linear instability problem with the elliptic nature of solitary waves. A continuity argument with a moving kernel formula is used to study these dispersion operators to yield the instability criterion.
In this work, we consider the mathematical theory of wind generated water waves. This entails determining the stability properties of the family of laminar flow solutions to the two-phase interface Euler equation. We present a rigorous derivation of the linearized evolution equations about an arbitrary steady solution, and, using this, we give a complete proof of the instability criterion of Miles. Our analysis is valid even in the presence of surface tension and a vortex sheet (discontinuity in the tangential velocity across the air--sea interface). We are thus able to give a unified equation connecting the Kelvin--Helmholtz and quasi-laminar models of wave generation.
We study stationary capillary-gravity waves in a two-dimensional body of water that rests above a flat ocean bed and below vacuum. This system is described by the Euler equations with a free surface. Our main result states that there exist large families of such waves that carry finite energy and exhibit an exponentially localized distribution of (nontrivial) vorticity. This is accomplished by combining ideas drawn from the theory of spike-layer solutions to singularly perturbed elliptic equations, with techniques from the study of steady solutions of the water wave problem.