Spatial wave structure created by wind input

Waves on the open sea grow under the influence of strong winds. However, most wave models used in offshore engineering neglect any energy input or dissipation. A study on the possible effects of energy transferred from the wind on the nonlinear dynamics of steep wave groups was carried out. In a uni-directional approximation, solitary wave structures were preferentially amplified due to their inherent local balance between dispersion and nonlinearity. In contrast, in a directional spread approximation, there were no isolated solitary wave groups. Energy input could lead to the creation of a locally close to unidirectional three sisters event, followed by the spread of large geometric structure across the entire computational domain. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 18th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference (Vancouver, BC, Canada, 7/6-11/2008).