Nonlinear fast growth of water waves under wind forcing

Abstract

In the wind-driven wave regime, the Miles mechanism gives an estimate of the growth rate of the waves under the effect of wind. We consider the case where this growth rate, normalised with respect to the frequency of the carrier wave, is of the order of the wave steepness. Using the method of multiple scales, we calculate the terms which appear in the nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS) equation in this regime of fast-growing waves. We define a coordinate transformation which maps the forced NLS equation into the standard NLS with constant coefficients, that has a number of known analytical soliton solutions. Among these solutions, the Peregrine and the Akhmediev solitons show an enhancement of both their lifetime and maximum amplitude which is in qualitative agreement with the results of tank experiments and numerical simulations of dispersive focusing under the action of wind.