Nonlinear wave group evolution in shallow water

Wave group evolution in shallow water of constant depth is investigated exp erimentally in a laboratory wave tank and simulated numerically applying th e Korteweg-de Vries equation. Good agreement between the experimental and t he numerical results is obtained. Decomposition into harmonics is performed , and the results are presented separately for the carrier wave frequency, second harmonic, and low harmonic. Experiments and simulations are performe d for three values of the forcing amplitude at the wavemaker. The effect of the nonlinearity parameter and its ratio to the dispersion parameter on th e evolution of the wave group along the tank is studied.