Interactions between defects and propagating hydrodynamic solitons

This paper studies the hydrodynamic solitons propagating along a long trough with a defective bed. The slight deviation from the plane in the bed serves as the depth defects. Based on the perturbation method, it finds that the free surface wave is governed by a Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation with a defect term (KdVD). The numerical calculations show that, for a single-convexity localized defect, the propagating soliton is decelerated as it comes into the defect region, and it is accelerated back to its initial velocity as it leaves, which has a dipole effect. As a result, its displacement is lagged in contrast to the uninfluenced one. And an up-step defect makes the propagating soliton decelerate simply. The opposite influence will occur for a single-concavity localized defect and a down-step one. The defect-induced influence on propagating hydrodynamic solitons depends on the polarity of defects, which agrees with that on non-propagating ones. However, the involved dipole effect of the single localized defect is not displayed in non-propagating cases.