Modulational Instabilities and Breaking Strength for Deep-Water Wave Groups

Progression of nonlinear wave groups to breaking was studied numerically and experimentally. Evolution of such wave group parameters as a function of distance to breaking and modulation depth—the height ratio of the highest and the lowest waves in the group—was described. Numerical model results demonstrated good agreement with experimental results in describing the behavior of the distance to breaking and modulation depth as functions of initial wave steepness. It was shown that energy loss appears to be a function of the modulation depth at the breaking onset. Energy loss grows with modulation depth up to a certain threshold of the latter. It was also shown that breaking probability for wave groups with modulation depth below 2.2 is very low.