Skip to main content
Log in

General solution for interaction of solitary waves including head-on collisions

  • Published:
Acta Mechanica Sinica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A corrected version of the Boussinesq equation for long water waves is derived and its general solution for interaction of any number of solitary waves, including head-on collisions, is given. For two solitary waves in head-on collision (which includes the case of normal reflection) the results agree with the experiments known.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Boussinesq J. Théorie des ondes et des remous qui se propagent de long d'un canal rectangulaire horizontal, en communiquant au liquide contenu dans ce canal des vitesses sensiblement pareilles de la surface au fond.J Math Pures Appl Ser 2, 1872, 17: 55–108

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Hirota R Exact N-soliton solutions of the wave equation of long waves in shallow-water and in nonlinear lattices.J Math Phys, 1973, 14 (7): 810–814

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Oikawa M, Yajima N Interactions of solitary waves—a perturbation approach to non-linear systems.J Phys Soc Japan, 1973, 34: 1093–1099

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. Yih C.-S. General solution for interaction of solitary waves including head-on collisions.Acta Mech Sinica, 1993, 9 (2): 97–101

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Byatt-Smith JGB. An integral equation for unsteady surface waves and a comment on the Boussinesq equation.J Fluid Mech, 1971, 49: 625–633

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Chan RKC, Street RL. A computer study of finite-amplitude water waves.J Comp Phys, 1970, 6: 68–94

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Maxworthy T Experiments on collisions between solitary waves.J Fluid Mech, 1976, 76: 177–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Power H, Chwang AT. On reflection of a planar solitary wave at a vertical wall.Wave Motion, 1984, 6: 183–195

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Wu TY. A bidirectional long-wave modelMethods and Appl of Analysis, 1994, 1(1): 108–117

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Whitham GB. Linear and Nonlinear Waves. Interscience, 1974

  11. Hirota R. Exact solution of the Koreteweg-de Vries equation for multiple collisions of solitions.Phy Rev Lett, 1971, 27: 1192–1194

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Yih, CS., Yao-tsu Wu, T. General solution for interaction of solitary waves including head-on collisions. Acta Mech Sinica 11, 193–199 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02487722

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02487722

Key Words

Navigation