THEORY OF WEAKLY DAMPED STOKES WAVES - A NEW FORMULATION AND ITS PHYSICAL INTERPRETATION

A tractable theory for weakly damped, nonlinear Stokes waves on deep water was recently formulated by Ruvinsky & Friedman (1985a, b; 1987). In this paper we show how the theory can be simplified, and that it is equivalent to a boundary-layer model for surface waves proposed by Longuet-Higgins (1969), when the latter is generalized to include surface tension and nonlinearity. The potential part of the flow is determined by boundary conditions applied at the base of the vortical boundary layer. The theory may be of use in discussing the generation of waves by wind.