Observation of gravity-capillary wave turbulence

Eric Falcon (1) , Claude Laroche (1) , Stéphan Fauve (2)

1 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon
2 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l'ENS

We report the observation of the cross-over between gravity and capillary wave turbulence on the surface of mercury. The probability density functions of the turbulent wave height are found to be asymmetric and thus non Gaussian. The surface wave height displays power-law spectra in both regimes. In the capillary region, the exponent is in fair agreement with weak turbulence theory. In the gravity region, it depends on the forcing parameters. This can be related to the finite size of the container. In addition, the scaling of those spectra with the mean energy flux is found in disagreement with weak turbulence theory for both regimes.

Mots clés: fluctuations; Non Gaussian statistics; energy flux; injected power; weak turbulence; wave turbulence; surface wave; gravity waves; capillary waves; Kolmogorov type spectrum; experiment; probability density function

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]; Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Dynamique Chaotique [nlin.CD]

Eric Falcon, Claude Laroche, Stéphan Fauve. Observation of gravity-capillary wave turbulence. Physical Review Letters, 2007, 98, pp.094503. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.094503⟩. ⟨hal-00105527v3⟩