A simple variational approximation of shallow water type

The free-surface hydrodynamical problem governing progressive surface waves of permanent type is approximated under assumptions that correspond to hydrostatic pressure.A variational formulation of the full nonlinear problem is used followed by a Ritz-Kantorovich expansion for the relevant functional. By taking the leading term in the expansion a single ordinary differential equation (nonlinear) for the free surface profile is obtained. Solutions are possible in terms of cnoidal functions.Some explicit results for infinitesimal amplitude waves and solitary waves within the model are presented.     

The Evolution in Space and Time of Nonlinear Waves in Parallel Shear Flows

It is shown, using a quite general formulation, that the amplitude evolution equation for slowly varying finite amplitude waves is usually first order in both space and time. One advantage of the present formulation is that it becomes possible to easily identify, from their linear eigensolutions, interesting exceptional cases in which the amplitude evolves according to a partial differential equation that is second order in either space or time. The theory is applied to a number of specific problems, including flows with broken line profiles, and inviscid shear flows having nonlinear critical layers.     

Rotational waves generated by current‐topography interaction

We study nonlinear free‐surface rotational waves generated through the interaction of a vertically sheared current with a topography. Equivalently, the waves may be generated by a pressure distribution along the free surface. A forced Korteweg–de Vries equation (fKdV) is deduced incorporating these features. The weakly nonlinear, weakly dispersive reduced model is valid for small amplitude topographies. To study the effect of gradually increasing the topography amplitude, the free surface Euler equations are formulated in the presence of a variable depth and a sheared current of constant vorticity. Under constant vorticity, the harmonic velocity component is formulated in a simplified canonical domain, through the use of a conformal mapping which flattens both the free surface as well as the bottom topography. Critical, supercritical, and subcritical Froude number regimes are considered, while the bottom amplitude is gradually increased in both the irrotational and rotational wave regimes. Solutions to the fKdV model are compared to those from the Euler equations. We show that for rotational waves the critical Froude number is shifted away from 1. New stationary solutions are found and their stability tested numerically.     

On linear and nonlinear Rossby waves in an ocean

This paper deals with recent developments of linear and nonlinear Rossby waves in an ocean. Included are also linear Poincaré, Rossby, and Kelvin waves in an ocean. The dispersion diagrams for Poincaré, Kelvin and Rossby waves are presented. Special attention is given to the nonlinear Rossby waves on a β-plane ocean. Based on the perturbation analysis, it is shown that the nonlinear evolution equation for the wave amplitude satisfies a modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The solution of this equation represents solitary waves in a dispersive medium. In other words, the envelope of the amplitude of the waves has a soliton structure and these envelope solitons propagate with the group velocity of the Rossby waves. Finally, a nonlinear analytical model is presented for long Rossby waves in a meridional channel with weak shear. A new nonlinear wave equation for the amplitude of large Rossby waves is derived in a region where fluid flows over the recirculation core. It is shown that the governing amplitude equations for the inner and outer zones are both KdV type, where weak nonlinearity is balanced by weak dispersion. In the inner zone, the nonlinear amplitude equation has a new term proportional to the 3/2 power of the difference between the wave amplitude and the critical amplitude, and this term occurs to account for a nonlinearity due to the flow over the vortex core. The solution of the amplitude equations with the linear shear flow represents the solitary waves. The present study deals with the lowest mode (n=1) analysis. An extension of the higher modes (n?2) of this work will be made in a subsequent paper.     

On the Cauchy problem for a model equation for shallow water waves of moderate amplitude

We prove the local well-posedness for a nonlinear equation modeling the evolution of the free surface for waves of moderate amplitude in the shallow water regime.     

A Higher-Order Internal Wave Model Accounting for Large Bathymetric Variations

A higher-order strongly nonlinear model is derived to describe the evolution of large amplitude internal waves over arbitrary bathymetric variations in a two-layer system where the upper layer is shallow while the lower layer is comparable to the characteristic wavelength. The new system of nonlinear evolution equations with variable coefficients is a generalization of the deep configuration model proposed by Choi and Camassa [ 1 ] and accounts for both a higher-order approximation to pressure coupling between the two layers and the effects of rapidly varying bottom variation. Motivated by the work of Rosales and Papanicolaou [ 2 ], an averaging technique is applied to the system for weakly nonlinear long internal waves propagating over periodic bottom topography. It is shown that the system reduces to an effective Intermediate Long Wave (ILW) equation, in contrast to the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation derived for the surface wave case.     

Exact Free Surface Flows for Shallow Water Equations I: The Incompressible Case

A comprehensive exact treatment of free surface flows governed by shallow water equations (in sigma variables) is given. Several new families of exact solutions of the governing PDEs are found and are shown to embed the well-known self-similar or traveling wave solutions which themselves are governed by reduced ODEs. The classes of solutions found here are explicit in contrast to those found earlier in an implicit form. The height of the free surface for each family of solutions is found explicitly. For the traveling or simple wave, the free surface is governed by a nonlinear wave equation, but is arbitrary otherwise. For other types of solutions, the height of the free surface is constant either on lines of constant acceleration or on lines of constant speed; in another case, the free surface is a horizontal plane while the flow underneath is a sine wave. The existence of simple waves on shear flows is analytically proved. The interaction of large amplitude progressive waves with shear flow is also studied.     

Numerical modelling of free-surface shallow flows over irregular topography with complex geometry

A well-balanced Godunov-type finite volume algorithm is developed for modelling free-surface shallow flows over irregular topography with complex geometry. The algorithm is based on a new formulation of the classical shallow water equations in hyperbolic conservation form. Unstructured triangular grids are used to achieve the adaptability of the grid to the geometry of the problem and to facilitate localised refinement. The numerical fluxes are calculated using HLLC approximate Riemann solver, and the MUSCL-Hancock predictor–corrector scheme is adopted to achieve the second-order accuracy both in space and in time where the solutions are continuous, and to achieve high-resolution results where the solutions are discontinuous. The novelties of the algorithm include preserving well-balanced property without any additional correction terms and the wet/dry front treatments. The good performance of the algorithm is demonstrated by comparing numerical and theoretical results of several benchmark problems, including the preservation of still water over a two-dimensional hump, the idealised dam-break flow over a frictionless flat rectangular channel, the circular dam-break, and the shock wave from oblique wall. Besides, two laboratory dam-break cases are used for model validation. Furthermore, a practical application related to dam-break flood wave propagation over highly irregular topography with complex geometry is presented. The results show that the algorithm can correctly account for free-surface shallow flows with respect to its effectiveness and robustness thus has bright application prospects.     

A Numerical Study of the Exact Evolution Equations for Surface Waves in Water of Finite Depth

We describe a pseudo-spectral numerical method to solve the systems of one-dimensional evolution equations for free surface waves in a homogeneous layer of an ideal fluid. We use the method to solve a system of one-dimensional integro-differential equations, first proposed by Ovsjannikov and later derived by Dyachenko, Zakharov, and Kuznetsov, to simulate the exact evolution of nonlinear free surface waves governed by the two-dimensional Euler equations. These equations are written in the transformed plane where the free surface is mapped onto a flat surface and do not require the common assumption that the waves have small amplitude used in deriving the weakly nonlinear Korteweg–de Vries and Boussinesq long-wave equations. We compare the solution of the exact reduced equations with these weakly nonlinear long-wave models and with the nonlinear long-wave equations of Su and Gardner that do not assume the waves have small amplitude. The Su and Gardner solutions are in remarkably close agreement with the exact Euler solutions for large amplitude solitary wave interactions while the interactions of low-amplitude solitary waves of all four models agree. The simulations demonstrate that our method is an efficient and accurate approach to integrate all of these equations and conserves the mass, momentum, and energy of the Euler equations over very long simulations.     

Navier Stokes model of solitary wave collision

Wave collision and its interaction characteristics is one of the important challenges in coastal engineering. This article concerns the collision of solitary waves over a horizontal bottom considering unsteady, incompressible viscous flow with free surface. The method solves the two dimensional Naiver–Stokes equations for conservation of momentum, continuity equation, and full nonlinear kinematic free-surface equation for Newtonian fluids, as the governing equations in a vertical plan. A mapping was developed to trace the deformed free surface encountered during wave propagation, transforms and interaction by transferring the governing equations from the physical domain to a computational domain. Also a numerical scheme is developed using finite element modeling technique in order to predict the solitary wave collision. Consequently results compared with other researches and show the inelastic behavior of solitary wave collision.     

Internal Solitary Waves

The expansion procedure introduced by Benney (1966) for weakly nonlinear, planar shallow-water waves is used to provide an alternative derivation of the more general results of Benjamin (1966) for shallow fluid layers possessing arbitrary vertical stratification and horizontal shear. New solutions that include the effects of both shear and stratification are presented. The evolution equation for slowly varying cylindrical solitary waves traveling in a density-stratified fluid is found using two-timing techniques. Not surprisingly, one obtains the same coefficients for the nonlinear and dispersive terms as in the planar case. In the limit for uniform density it is shown that the free-surface evolution equation of Miles (1978) for axisymmetric Boussinesq waves is recovered.     

Rossby Solitary Waves in the Presence of a Critical Layer

This study considers the evolution of weakly nonlinear long Rossby waves in a horizontally sheared zonal current. We consider a stable flow so that the nonlinear time scale is long. These assumptions enable the flow to organize itself into a large‐scale coherent structure in the régime where a competition sets in between weak nonlinearity and weak dispersion. This balance is often described by a Korteweg‐de‐Vries equation. The traditional assumption of a weak amplitude breaks down when the wave speed equals the mean flow velocity at a certain latitude, due to the appearance of a singularity in the leading‐order equation, which strongly modifies the flow in a critical layer. Here, nonlinear effects are invoked to resolve this singularity, because the relevant geophysical flows have high Reynolds numbers. Viscosity is introduced in order to render the nonlinear‐critical‐layer solution unique, but the inviscid limit is eventually taken. By the method of matched asymptotic expansions, this inner flow is matched at the edges of the critical layer with the outer flow. We will show that the critical‐layer–induced flow leads to a strong rearrangement of the related streamlines and consequently of the potential‐vorticity contours, particularly in the neighborhood of the separatrices between the open and closed streamlines. The symmetry of the critical layer vis‐à‐vis the critical level is also broken. This theory is relevant for the phenomenon of Rossby wave breaking and eventual saturation into a nonlinear wave. Spatially localized solutions are described by a Korteweg‐de‐Vries equation, modified by new nonlinear terms; depending on the critical‐layer shape, this leads to depression or elevation waves. The additional terms are made necessary at a certain order of the asymptotic expansion while matching the inner flow on the dividing streamlines. The new evolution equation supports a family of solitary waves. In this paper we describe in detail the case of a depression wave, and postpone for further discussion the more complex case of an elevation wave.     

Free-surface film flow over topography under electric fields

We study a gravity-driven flow of a liquid down an inclined uneven wall in the presence of a normal electric field. We derive an evolution equation for the free-surface, and analyse steady-state solutions for flows into a rectangular trench and over a rectangular mound. The results are corroborated by boundary-element calculations for Stokes flow. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Nonlinear Wave Equations for Oceanic Internal Solitary Waves

In the coastal ocean, the interaction of barotropic tidal currents with topographic features such as the continental shelf, sills in narrow straits, and bottom ridges are often observed to generate large amplitude, horizontally propagating internal solitary waves. These are long nonlinear waves and hence can be modeled by equations of the Korteweg–de Vries type. Typically they occur in regions of variable bottom topography, with the consequence that the appropriate nonlinear evolution equation has variable coefficients. Further, as these waves can be long‐lived it is necessary to take account of the effects of the Earth's background rotation. We review this family of model evolution equations and some of their pertinent solutions, obtained both asymptotically and numerically.     

Azimuthal equatorial capillary–gravity flows in spherical coordinates

We work in the setting of spherical coordinates to prove existence of free-surface capillary–gravity azimuthal equatorial flows which allow for variations in the vertical direction (so currents can be accommodated) but with no meridional flow. We perform the task by deriving an implicit equation, which determines the pressure at the surface if the free surface is known, and vice-versa (given the current profile). The solutions of this equation are found by using the implicit function theorem in a proper setting, which incorporates the observed symmetry about the Equator and takes advantage of the freedom in choosing the reference for the length of the Earth’s radius at the Equator.     

Nonlinear Hamiltonian waves with constant frequency and surface waves on vorticity discontinuities

Waves with constant, nonzero linearized frequency form an interesting class of nondispersive waves whose properties differ from those of nondispersive hyperbolic waves. We propose an inviscid Burgers‐Hilbert equation as a model equation for such waves and give a dimensional argument to show that it models Hamiltonian surface waves with constant frequency. Using the method of multiple scales, we derive a cubically nonlinear, quasi‐linear, nonlocal asymptotic equation for weakly nonlinear solutions. We show that the same asymptotic equation describes surface waves on a planar discontinuity in vorticity in two‐dimensional inviscid, incompressible fluid flows. Thus, the Burgers‐Hilbert equation provides an effective equation for these waves. We describe the Hamiltonian structure of the Burgers‐Hilbert and asymptotic equations, and show that the asymptotic equation can also be derived by means of a near‐identity transformation. We derive a semiclassical approximation of the asymptotic equation and show that spatially periodic, harmonic traveling waves are linearly and modulationally stable. Numerical solutions of the Burgers‐Hilbert and asymptotic equations are in excellent agreement in the appropriate regime. In particular, the lifespan of small‐amplitude smooth solutions of the Burgers‐Hilbert equation is given by the cubically nonlinear timescale predicted by the asymptotic equation. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Dynamics of Strongly Nonlinear Internal Solitary Waves in Shallow Water

We study the dynamics of large amplitude internal solitary waves in shallow water by using a strongly nonlinear long-wave model. We investigate higher order nonlinear effects on the evolution of solitary waves by comparing our numerical solutions of the model with weakly nonlinear solutions. We carry out the local stability analysis of solitary wave solution of the model and identify an instability mechanism of the Kelvin–Helmholtz type. With parameters in the stable range, we simulate the interaction of two solitary waves: both head-on and overtaking collisions. We also study the deformation of a solitary wave propagating over non-uniform topography and describe the process of disintegration in detail. Our numerical solutions unveil new dynamical behaviors of large amplitude internal solitary waves, to which any weakly nonlinear model is inapplicable.     

On Local Singularities in Ideal Potential Flows with Free Surface

Despite important advances in the mathematical analysis of the Euler equations for water waves, especially over the last two decades, it is not yet known whether local singularities can develop from smooth data in well-posed initial value problems. For ideal free-surface flow with zero surface tension and gravity, the authors review existing works that describe ``splash singularities'', singular hyperbolic solutions related to jet formation and ``flip-through'', and a recent construction of a singular free surface by Zubarev and Karabut that however involves unbounded negative pressure. The authors illustrate some of these phenomena with numerical computations of 2D flow based upon a conformal mapping formulation. Numerical tests with a different kind of initial data suggest the possibility that corner singularities may form in an unstable way from specially prepared initial data.     

Linear stationary surface waves over a rough bottom

We consider the linear formulation of the 3-dimensional problem of a stationary flow with a free surface over a rough bottom of an irrotational capillary heavy ideal incompressible fluid. For fast near-critical flows we derive an approximate equation for the free surface elevation. We express a fundamental solution to the problem in terms of contour integrals and establish its asymptotic behavior at large distances from the origin.     

A model equation for nonlinear wavelength selection and amplitude evolution of frontal waves

Summary We study a model equation describing the temporal evolution of nonlinear finite-amplitude waves on a density front in a rotating fluid. The linear spectrum includes an unstable interval where exponential growth of the amplitude is expected. It is shown that the length scale of the waves in the nonlinear situation is determined by the linear instabilities; the effect of the nonlinearities is to limit the amplitude's growth, leaving the wavelength unchanged. When linearly stable waves are prescribed as initial data, a short interval of rapid decrease in amplitude is encountered first, followed by a transfer of energy to the unstable part of the spectrum, where the fastest growing mode starts to dominate. A localized disturbance is broken up into its Fourier components, the linearly unstable modes grow at the expense of all other modes, and final amplitudes are determined by the nonlinear term. Periodic evolution of linearly unstable waves in the nonlinear situation is also observed. Based on the numerical results, the existence of low-order chaos in the partial differential equation governing weakly nonlinear wave evolution is conjectured.