An experimental study on nonlinear wave dynamics for freak waves over an uneven bottom

Abstract

The effect of the non-uniform bathymetry on the nonlinear wave dynamics for the freak wave is investigated experimentally, with emphasis on the interrelations between different nonlinear behaviors resulting from various geometric parameters and spectral analysis. Both the frequency modulation and the nonlinear phase coupling can be provoked by the decreasing water depth and weakened after the top peak of the bar, the nonlinear exhibition for transferring energy to high-frequency contents over shoal supports that frequency modulation can reflect nonlinear phase coupling well. The consistent change of the Hilbert energy spectrum and the bicoherence shows that the main nonlinear interaction in the process of wave propagation in shallowing water is quadratic nonlinearity. In addition, the geometric study is conducted to investigate the effect of the water depth on the parametric variations, the research results show that the mean asymmetry and kurtosis change abruptly when the wave approaches the top peak of the bar. As the wave propagates along the water flume, freak waves can be generated at various locations, however, they appear more frequently as waves propagate close to the shallowest water depth, and the maximum probability of occurrence for a freak wave can be up to about 1%.