Around the Cusp Singularity and the Breaking of Waves

Abstract

WAVES is an “Art-Science” project on water surface waves. The authors aim to visualize the behaviour of water waves during their evolution: generation, focusing and breaking. Relying on the general property of waves to focus when properly generated or reflected, the authors use a parabolically shaped wave maker to focus water waves in a region of the water surface called the Huygens cusp in optics and then record these breakings using a fast video camera. A novel and spectacular vision of wave breakings is obtained when playing at slow speed.