Shear induced breaking of large internal solitary waves

The stability properties of 24 experimentally generated internal solitary waves (ISWs) of extremely large amplitude, all with minimum Richardson number less than 1/4, are investigated. The study is supplemented by fully nonlinear calculations in a three-layer fluid. The waves move along a linearly stratified pycnocline (depth h2) sandwiched between a thin upper layer (depth h1) and a deep lower layer (depth h3), both homogeneous. In particular, the wave-induced velocity profile through the pycnocline is measured by particle image velocimetry (PIV) and obtained in computation. Breaking ISWs were found to have amplitudes (a1) in the range a1>2.24 √h1h2(1+h2/h1), while stable waves were on or below this limit. Breaking ISWs were investigated for 0.27 0.86 and stable waves for Lx/λ < 0.86. The results show a sort of threshold-like behaviour in terms of Lx/λ. The results demonstrate that the breaking threshold of Lx/λ = 0.86 was sharper than one based on a minimum Richardson number and reveal that the Richardson number was found to become almost antisymmetric across relatively thick pycnoclines, with the minimum occurring towards the top part of the pycnoclinePostprintPeer reviewe

Generalised Fourier Transform and Perturbations to Soliton Equations

A brief survey of the theory of soliton perturbations is presented. The focus is on the usefulness of the so-called Generalised Fourier Transform (GFT). This is a method that involves expansions over the complete basis of `squared olutions` of the spectral problem, associated to the soliton equation. The Inverse Scattering Transform for the corresponding hierarchy of soliton equations can be viewed as a GFT where the expansions of the solutions have generalised Fourier coefficients given by the scattering data. The GFT provides a natural setting for the analysis of small perturbations to an integrable equation: starting from a purely soliton solution one can `modify` the soliton parameters such as to incorporate the changes caused by the perturbation. As illustrative examples the perturbed equations of the KdV hierarchy, in particular the Ostrovsky equation, followed by the perturbation theory for the Camassa- Holm hierarchy are presented.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, to appear in: Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems

Oleinik type estimates for the Ostrovsky-Hunter eequation

The Ostrovsky-Hunter equation provides a model for small-amplitude long waves in a rotating fluid of finite depth. It is a nonlinear evolution equation. In this paper we study the well-posedness for the Cauchy problem associated to this equation within a class of bounded discontinuous solutions. We show that we can replace the Kruzkov-type entropy inequalities by an Oleinik-type estimate and prove uniqueness via a nonlocal adjoint problem. An implication is that a shock wave in an entropy weak solution to the Ostrovsky-Hunter equation is admissible only if it jumps down in value (like the inviscid Burgers equation)

Orbital stability of periodic waves in the class of reduced Ostrovsky equations

Periodic travelling waves are considered in the class of reduced Ostrovsky equations that describe low-frequency internal waves in the presence of rotation. The reduced Ostrovsky equations with either quadratic or cubic nonlinearities can be transformed to integrable equations of the Klein--Gordon type by means of a change of coordinates. By using the conserved momentum and energy as well as an additional conserved quantity due to integrability, we prove that small-amplitude periodic waves are orbitally stable with respect to subharmonic perturbations, with period equal to an integer multiple of the period of the wave. The proof is based on construction of a Lyapunov functional, which is convex at the periodic wave and is conserved in the time evolution. We also show numerically that convexity of the Lyapunov functional holds for periodic waves of arbitrary amplitudes.Comment: 34 page

Existence, regularity, and symmetry of periodic traveling waves for Gardner-Ostrovsky type equations

We study the existence, regularity, and symmetry of periodic traveling solutions to a class of Gardner-Ostrovsky type equations, including the classical Gardner-Ostrovsky equation, the (modified) Ostrovsky, and the reduced (modified) Ostrovsky equation. The modified Ostrovsky equation is also known as the short pulse equation. The Gardner-Ostrovsky equation is a model for internal ocean waves of large amplitude. We prove the existence of nontrivial, periodic traveling wave solutions using local bifurcation theory, where the wave speed serves as the bifurcation parameter. Moreover, we give a regularity analysis for periodic traveling solutions in the presence as well as absence of Boussinesq dispersion. We see that the presence of Boussinesq dispersion implies smoothness of periodic traveling wave solutions, while its absence may lead to singularities in the form of peaks or cusps. Eventually, we study the symmetry of periodic traveling solutions by the method of moving planes. A novel feature of the symmetry results in the absence of Boussinesq dispersion is that we do not need to impose a traditional monotonicity condition or a recently developed reflection criterion on the wave profiles to prove the statement on the symmetry of periodic traveling waves