Laboratory Experiments on the Effects of a Variable Current Field on the Spectral Geometry of Water Waves

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the effects of a coflowing current field on the spectral shape of water waves. The results indicate that refraction is the main factor in modulating wave height and overall wave energy. Although the structure of the current field varies considerably, some current-induced patterns in the wave spectrum are observed. In high frequencies, the energy cascading generated by nonlinear interactions is suppressed, and the development of a spectral tail is disturbed, as a consequence of the detuning of the four-wave resonance conditions. Furthermore, the presence of currents slows the downshifting of the spectral peak. The suppression of the high-frequency energy under the influence of currents is more prominent as the spectral steepness increases. The energy suppression is also more accentuated and long-standing along the fetch when the directional spreading of waves is sufficiently broad. This result indicates that the current-induced detuning of resonant conditions is more effective when exact resonances are the primary mechanism of nonlinear interactions than when quasi resonances prevail (directionally narrow cases). Additionally, the directional analysis shows that the highly variable currents broaden the directional spreading of waves. The broadening is suggested to be related to random refraction and scattering of wave rays. The random disturbance of wavenumbers alters the nonlinear interaction conditions and weakens the energy exchanges among wave components, which is expressed in the suppression of the high-frequency energy.</jats:p>