Statistics of gravity waves obtained by direct numerical simulation

Abstract

We perform direct numerical simulations of dynamic equations of decaying gravity waves on infinite-depth water. Power-law behaviour of the wave action spectrum and structure functions of the surface elevation is obtained. These power laws agree with the prediction of the weak turbulence theory. The probability density function (p.d.f.) of the surface elevation is close to the Gaussian distribution around the mean value which seems to be consistent with the random phase approximation. However, the p.d.f. deviates weakly from the Gaussian in the tail region. This deviation is significant and can be amplified by taking the Laplacian. In addition, intermittency and breakdown of the weak turbulence theory are discussed.