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.
For the first time, mighty ocean waves generated in the Southern Ocean have been accurately measured all the way to the tiny ripples they form on the shores of Alaska. Professor Ian Young, from the University of Melbourne's ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 4, 2026
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9
Summer brings with it the sight of surfers moving seamlessly across wave crests, with ocean waters carrying them along coastlines. A team of scientists has now created a similar phenomenon—with small objects rather than surfers—that ...
Soft Matter
Jun 3, 2026
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7
In the quirky quantum world, particles can be affected by forces that they never directly encounter. A classic example is the Aharonov–Bohm (AB) effect, where electrons are affected by a magnetic field, despite not passing ...
Soft Matter
Apr 20, 2026
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540
On a calm day, a light breeze might barely ripple the surface of a lake on Earth. But on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, a similar mild wind would kick up 10-foot-tall waves. This otherworldly behavior is one prediction from ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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172
A new study by scientists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) shows that when a pressure disturbance moves across an ultrasoft elastic material, such as a gel or a biological tissue, ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 13, 2026
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21
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
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132
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
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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
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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
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128
