Open AccessOn the energy of nonlinear water waves
Author(s) -
David Henry
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings - royal society. mathematical, physical and engineering sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1471-2946
pISSN - 1364-5021
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.2021.0544
Subject(s) - kinetic energy , conservative vector field , nonlinear system , energy (signal processing) , physics , energy density , mechanics , breaking wave , classical mechanics , wave propagation , optics , quantum mechanics , theoretical physics , compressibility
This article presents results concerning the excess kinetic and potential energies for exact nonlinear water waves. In particular, it is proven, for periodic travelling irrotational water waves, that the excess kinetic energy density is always negative, whereas the excess potential energy density is always positive, in the steady reference frame. A characterization of the total excess energy density as a weighted mean of the kinetic energy along the wave surface profile is also presented.