= Surface-wave breaking
A <surface gravity wave> breaks when its smooth free-surface motion becomes unstable and overturns or forms a strongly dissipative front. In the nondispersive <shallow-water approximation>, intersecting compressive <characteristic curves> signal failure of a smooth <simple wave>; a <hydraulic bore> replaces it at the integral-model level. Dispersion can instead produce an oscillatory bore, while physical breaking involves turbulence and energy loss beyond the inviscid equations.
Back to article page
