Predicting the occurrence of rogue waves in the presence of opposing currents with a high-order spectral method
Guillaume Ducrozet, Maryam Abdolahpour, Filippo Nelli, Alessandro Toffoli
Abstract
This work concerns the study of surface water waves in the presence of a horizontally varying opposing current. We demonstrate experimentally and numerically that spatial inhomogeneity increases the occurrence probability of extreme and rogue waves in the course of unidirectional wave propagation. We clearly report the transition between Gaussian and strongly non-Gaussian properties. An existing experimental model of wave-current interaction is revisited by comparing it against numerical simulations from current-modified Euler equations. The latter substantiate that the underlying physics is associated with quasi-resonant nonlinear interactions that are triggered by the background current.