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On the deformation of periodic long waves over a gently sloping bottom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2006
Abstract
Two-dimensional time-periodic water waves on a gently sloping bottom are investigated under the classical long-wave assumptions that ε = h′0/λ′ and δ = H′/h′0 are small parameters (H′ being the wave height, h′0 a characteristic water depth and δ′ the horizontal scale for the oscillatory motion) and the assumption that δ/ε2 = O(1) as δ and ε tend to zero.
It is shown that for a bottom slope hx for which hx = o(ε3) the governing KdV equation with slowly varying coefficients (derived by Johnson 1973a) has a time-periodic solution which in the first approximation is a slowly varying cnoidal wave. The second-order approximation in an asymptotic expansion with respect to the bottom slope represents the deformation of this wave due to the sloping bottom. For hx [Gt ] ε5 this deformation is larger than the second-order contribution from the basic expansion with respect to wave amplitude which underlies the KdV equation itself; the calculation is then a consistent approximation to physical reality.
Numerical results for the deformation are given. Also, the wave profiles are compared with experiments on a plane of slope $h_x = \frac{1}{35}$ and show good agreement even for the large values of H’/h’ appropriate to waves rather close to breaking.
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- © 1978 Cambridge University Press
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