The front runner in roll waves produced by local disturbances

Abstract

Roll waves produced by a local disturbance comprise a group of shock waves with steep fronts. We used a robust and accurate numerical scheme to capture the steep fronts in a shallow-water hydraulic model of the waves. Our simulations of the waves in clear water revealed the existence of a front runner with an exceedingly large amplitude – much greater than those of all other shock waves in the wave group. The trailing waves at the back remained periodic. Waves were produced continuously within the group due to nonlinear instability. The celerity depended on the wave amplitude. Over time, the instability produced an increasing number of shock waves in an ever-expanding wave group. We conducted simulations for three types of local disturbances of very different duration over a range of amplitudes. We interpreted the simulation results for the front runner and the trailing waves, guided by an analytical solution and the laboratory data available for the smaller waves in the trailing end of the wave group.