The effects of wind on the generation of surface wave in a shallow water

Abstract

In this paper, the generation of surface waves by wind is modeled using an extended shallow water model. Jeffreys’ sheltering mechanism is incorporated to model the wind action on the surface. This modification allows the model to have a wave grow or decay mechanism under the action of wind. The wave generation or damping is investigated by calculating critical wind velocity to excite oscillatory waves on the surface. The result shows that critical wind is proportional to a numerical constant, namely the sheltering coefficient, which related to the capability of wave overcome the wind gust. Thus this model has the convenience that the critical wind speed may comparable to physical data for a suitable choice of this constant.