| Abstract: | Experimental data on surface solitary waves generated by five methods are given. These data and literature information show
that at amplitudes 0.2<a/h<0.6 (h is the initial depth of the liquid), experimental solitary waves are in good agreement with
their theoretical analogs obtained using the complete model of liquid potential flow. Some discrepancy is observed in the
range of small amplitudes. The reasons why free solitary waves of theoretically limiting amplitude have not been realized
in experiments are discussed, and an example of a forced wave of nearly limiting amplitude is given. The previously established
fact that during evolution from the state of rest, undular waves break when the propagation speed of their leading front reaches
the limiting speed of propagation of a solitary wave is confirmed.
Lavrent’ev Institute of Hydrodynamics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090. Translated from
Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 44–52, May–June, 1999. |
