Motion of a bore over a sloping beach

Abstract

The results of numerical calculations are presented for the motion of a bore over a uniformly sloping beach. The shallow water equations are solved in finite difference form, and a technique is developed for fitting in the bore at each step. The results are compared with the approximate formula given by Whitham (1958) and close agreement is found. The approximate theory is considered further here; the main addition is a rigorous proof that, within the shallow water theory, the height of the bore always tends to zero at the shoreline.