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Internal Solitary Waves

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Environmental Stratified Flows

Part of the book series: Topics in Environmental Fluid Mechanics ((EFMS,volume 3))

Abstract

The basic theory of internal solitary waves is developed, with the main emphasis on environmental situations, such as the many occurrences of such waves in shallow coastal seas and in the atmospheric boundary layer. Commencing with the equations of motion for an inviscid, incompressible density-stratified fluid, we describe asymptotic reductions to model long-wave equations, such as the well-known Korteweg-de Vries equation. We then describe various solitary wave solutions, and propose a variable-coefficient extended Korteweg-de Vries equations as an appropriate evolution equation to describe internal solitary waves in environmental situations, when the effects of a variable background and dissipation need to be taken into account.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Loughborough University, UK

    Roger Grimshaw

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  1. Roger Grimshaw
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Loughborough University, UK

    Roger Grimshaw

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© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Grimshaw, R. (2003). Internal Solitary Waves. In: Grimshaw, R. (eds) Environmental Stratified Flows. Topics in Environmental Fluid Mechanics, vol 3. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48024-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48024-7_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-7605-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-306-48024-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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