On the strength of the weakly nonlinear theory for surface gravity waves

Abstract

Recently, Bonnefoy et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 805, 2016, R3) studied the resonant interaction of oblique surface gravity waves in a large 50 m×30 m×5 m wave basin. Their experimental results are in excellent quantitative agreement with predictions of the weakly nonlinear wave theory, and provide additional evidence to the strength of this widely used mathematical formulation. In this article, the reader is introduced to the many facets of the weakly nonlinear theory for surface gravity waves, and to its current and possible future applications, deterministic as well as stochastic.