Debbie Eeltink News Today

Using machine learning along with data from wave tank experiments, MIT engineers have found a way to model how waves break. “With this, you could simulate waves to help design structures better, more efficiently, and without huge safety factors,” says Themis Sapsis. Credit:

When waves reach a certain height, they break, cresting and breaking into a shower of droplets and bubbles. These waves can range in size from a surfer’s point break to a soft ripple coming to shore. For decades, the intricacies of how and when a wave breaks have been too complicated to anticipate.

Waves break once they swell to a critical height, before cresting and crashing into a spray of droplets and bubbles. These waves can be as large as a surfer’s point break and as small as a gentle ripple rolling to shore. For decades, the dynamics of

For decades, the dynamics of how and when a wave breaks have been too complex to accurately predict. Now, using machine learning along with data from wave tank experiments, MIT engineers have found a way to model how waves break.