Wind-wave interaction

Coordinator : Norbert Kern

The transfer of energy from wind to ocean waves is a delicate process, crucial in oceanography and geological sciences. Phenomenological models are often set up, but do not always lead to a good understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

Yet there is a model based on physical principles, known as “Miles’ theory”, but which is currently underemployed for various reasons: the approach appears intimidating, is difficult to handle (both theoretically and numerically), and requires further adaptation to more realistic situations beyond those stipulated by Miles in his seminal article in 1954.

Working on these questions, with the aim of using physics to simplify the approach, is therefore timely, and we focus on this topic at the L2C (collaboration with C. Chaubet et M. Manna (L2C)