Steady-state resonance of multiple wave interactions in deep water

The steady-state resonance of multiple surface gravity waves in deep water was investigated in detail to extend the existing results due to Liao ( Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. , vol. 16, 2011, pp. 1274–1303) and Xu et al. ( J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 710, 2012, pp. 379–418) on steady-state resonance from a quartet to more general and coupled resonant quartets, together with higher-order resonant interactions. The exact nonlinear wave equations are solved without assumptions on the existence of small physical parameters. Multiple steady-state resonant waves are obtained for all the considered cases, and it is found that the number of multiple solutions tends to increase when more wave components are involved in the resonance sets. The topology of wave energy distribution in the parameter space is analysed, and it is found that the steady-state resonant waves indeed form a continuum in the parameter space. The significant roles of the near-resonance and nonlinearity were also revealed. It is found that all of the near-resonant components as a whole contain more and more wave energy, as the wave patterns tend from two dimensions to one dimension, or as the nonlinearity of the steady-state resonant wave system increases. In addition, the linear stability of the steady-state resonant waves is analysed. It is found that the steady-state resonant waves are stable, as long as the disturbance does not resonate with any components of the basic wave. All of these findings are helpful to enrich and deepen our understanding about resonant gravity waves.