The steepness distributions and break of individual waves in wave groups
波群内单个波的波陡分布与波破碎

In this paper, the steepness distributions and breaking of individual waves in wave groups have been studied. The maximum amplitude of individual waves occurs in the front of a wave group rather than in the middle. Such asymmetry of a wave group structure makes it more probable that larger steepness occurs on the individual waves in the front of the wave group than those in the rear. In other words, the average steepness of the individual waves at the beginning of a wave group is larger, resulting in higher probability that the individual waves in the front of the wave group break according to the statistics of wave breaking (the breaking probability of the individual waves in the front of a wave group is about four times of that in the rear of the wave group). Since wave breaking plays very important role in wind wave growth, these results are important for further study of wind wave.