Applicability and limitations of highly non-linear potential flow solvers in the context of water waves

This paper presents a general overview of the practical applicability of non-linear potential flow solvers for water wave propagation. Those numerical models are unable to describe explicitly the wave breaking phenomena, including free surface reconnexion, energy dissipation, etc. This reduces their range of application in real sea waves, which are in the most general context irregular and directional wave fields. This study covers the influence of discretization, water depth, directional spreading and spectral peakedness on the limitations in the use of such non-linear potential models. The approach at use relies on a highly non-linear model based on the High-Order Spectral method.