Waves and free surface flows is a research area in fluid mechanics focused on flows with a deformable interface between a liquid and a gas, typically water and air, where surface tension and gravity govern interface dynamics. It encompasses the generation, propagation, interaction, and breaking of surface and internal waves, including linear and nonlinear wave theory, dispersive and solitary waves, and turbulence–wave coupling. Research combines theoretical modeling (e.g., Navier–Stokes equations with free-surface boundary conditions), laboratory experiments, and numerical methods such as volume-of-fluid and level-set approaches, with applications in coastal and ocean engineering, naval hydrodynamics, and environmental fluid dynamics.
Using advanced computer simulations, researchers from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) have concluded how and why strong ocean currents modify surface waves. "Our primary finding is that ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 7, 2026
0
131
When waves are moving across ice-covered seas, they can cause sheets of ice to bend and ultimately break. Understanding the processes underlying these wave-induced ice fractures and predicting when they will occur could help ...
Accurate measurements of surface currents are crucial for coastal monitoring, rip current detection, and predicting the path of pollutants. Several methods exist to measure surface currents, some of which are costly and time-consuming. ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 26, 2026
0
23
Some phenomena in our daily lives are so commonplace that we don't realize there could be some very interesting physics behind them. Take a dripping faucet: why does the continuous stream of water from a faucet eventually ...
Soft Matter
Dec 1, 2025
0
129
University of Queensland researchers have created a microscopic "ocean" on a silicon chip to miniaturize the study of wave dynamics. The device, made at UQ's School of Mathematics and Physics, uses a layer of superfluid helium ...
Soft Matter
Oct 23, 2025
0
127
When water drains from the bottom of a vertical tube, it is followed by a thin film of liquid that can adopt complex and beautiful shapes. KAUST researchers have now studied exactly how these "fluted films" form and break ...
Soft Matter
Aug 20, 2025
0
44
On New Year's Day 1995, a monstrous 80-foot wave in the North Sea slammed into the Draupner oil platform. The wall of water crumpled steel railings and flung heavy equipment across the deck—but its biggest impact was what ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 7, 2025
0
247
Whether diving off docks, cannonballing into lakes or leaping off the high board, there's nothing quite like the joy of jumping into water.
General Physics
May 16, 2025
0
94
Scientists at the University of Miami's Alfred C. Glassell Jr. SUrge‐STructure‐Atmosphere INteraction (SUSTAIN) laboratory conducted a first-of-its-kind study into how waves form and increase in windy and hurricane conditions. ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 14, 2025
0
27
Researchers from RMIT University and the University of Melbourne have discovered that water generates an electrical charge up to 10 times greater than previously understood when it moves across a surface.
Condensed Matter
Mar 11, 2025
0
50
