English

Saturation of the inverse cascade in surface gravity wave turbulence

Fluid Dynamics 2020-10-28 v1 Chaotic Dynamics Classical Physics

Abstract

We report on the observation of surface gravity wave turbulence at scales larger than the forcing ones in a large basin. In addition to the downscale transfer usually reported in gravity wave turbulence, an upscale transfer is observed, interpreted as the inverse cascade of weak turbulence theory. A steady state is achieved when the inverse cascade reaches a scale in between the forcing wavelength and the basin size, but far from the latter. This inverse cascade saturation, which depends on the wave steepness, is probably due to the emergence of nonlinear dissipative structures such as sharp-crested waves.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.08467,
  title  = {Saturation of the inverse cascade in surface gravity wave turbulence},
  author = {Eric Falcon and Guillaume Michel and Gaurav Prabhudesai and Annette Cazaubiel and Michaël Berhanu and Nicolas Mordant and Sébastien Aumaitre and F. Bonnefoy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.08467},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Physical Review Letters, American Physical Society, In press