Structure and dynamics of solitary waves in fluid media

Structure and dynamics of solitary waves in fluid media

This research deals with the study of nonlinear solitary waves in fluid media. The equations which model surface and internal waves in fluids have been studied and used in this research. The approach to study the structure and dynamics of internal solitary waves in near-critical situations is the traditional theoretical and numerical study of nonlinear wave processes based on the methods of dynamical systems. The synergetic approach has been exploited, which presumes a combination of theoretical and numerical methods. All numerical calculations were performed with the desktop personal computer. Traditional and novel methods of mathematical physics were actively used, including Fourier analysis technique, inverse scattering method, Hirota method, phase-plane analysis, analysis of integral invariants, finite-difference method, Petviashvili and Yang–Lakoba numerical iterative techniques for the numerical solution of Partial Differential Equation.

A new model equation, dubbed the Gardner–Kawahara equation, has been suggested to describe wave phenomena in the near-critical situations, when the nonlinear and dispersive coefficients become anomalously small. Such near-critical situations were not studied so far, therefore this study is very topical and innovative. Results obtained will shed a light on the structure of solitary waves in near-critical situation, which can occur in two-layer fluid with strong surface tension between the layers. A family of solitary waves was constructed numerically for the derived Gardner–Kawahara equation; their structure has been investigated analytically and numerically.

The problem of modulation stability of quasi-monochromatic wave-trains propagating in a media has also being studied. The Nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) has been derived from the unidirectional Gardner–Ostrovsky equation and a general Shrira equation which describes both surface and internal long waves in a rotating fluid. It was demonstrated that earlier obtained results (Grimshaw & Helfrich, 2008; 2012; Whitfield & Johnson, 2015a; 2015b) on modulational stability/instability are correct within the limited range of wavenumbers where the Ostrovsky equation is applicable. In the meantime, results obtained in this Thesis and published in the paper (Nikitenkova et al., 2015) are applicable in the wider range of wavenumbers up to k = 0. It was shown that surface and internal oceanic waves are stable with respect to selfmodulation at small wavenumbers when k → 0 in contrast to what was mistakenly obtained in (Shrira, 1981).

In Chapter 4 new exact solutions of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation with a positive dispersion are obtained in the form of obliquely propagating skew lumps. Specific features of such lumps were studied in details. In particular, the integral characteristics of single lumps (mass, momentum components and energy) have been calculated and presented in terms of lump velocity. It was shown that exact stationary multi-lump solutions can be constructed for this equation. As the example, the exact bilump solution is presented in the explicit form and illustrated graphically. The relevance of skew lumps to the real physical systems is discussed.