Dynamics of multi-mode nonlinear internal waves in fluids of great depth

Abstract

This paper is mainly concerned with the dynamics of strongly nonlinear internal waves in two-dimensional fluids of great depth. A fully nonlinear model for a three-layer fluid of great depth containing topography, a Miyata–Choi–Camassa (MCC)-type system, is developed based on the generalization of the Ablowitz–Fokas–Musslimani global-relation formulation for free-surface water waves. Mode-1 internal solitary waves are numerically found in the MCC-type equation using the Petviashvili iteration technique and in the full Euler equations based on the boundary integral equation method. The comparison between the results validates the broad applicability of the MCC-type system. Mode-2 internal solitary waves are found in the MCC-type equations and are shown to be a type of gap solitary wave. Using the multi-mode internal solitary-wave solutions in the MCC-type equations, we apply the conformal mapping technique to calculate streamlines and particle trajectories. For unsteady simulations, we propose a pseudo-spectral algorithm to handle the time-coupled equations and investigate the generation mechanism of multi-mode internal solitary waves due to the resonance effect of local protrusion on the rigid wall, as well as their collisions when the wall is flat. For flows past protrusion on the rigid wall, the flow speed can be divided into subcritical, transcritical, and supercritical. The shedding of multi-mode internal solitary waves can occur only in the transcritical region of flow speed. We implement the carving of bifurcation curves with inflection to achieve the regional delimitation and, based on this, the interpretation of the generation mechanism from a physical point of view.