Hostname: page-component-5cf477f64f-h6p2m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-04T18:34:50.654Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A general approach to linear and non-linear dispersive waves using a Lagrangian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

G. B. Whitham
G. B. Whitham
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The basic property of equations describing dispersive waves is the existence of solutions representing uniform wave trains. In this paper a general theory is given for non-uniform wave trains whose amplitude, wave-number, etc., vary slowly in space and time, the length and time scales of the variation in amplitude, wave-number, etc., being large compared to the wavelength and period. Dispersive equations may be derived from a variational principle with appropriate Lagrangian, and the whole theory is developed in terms of the Lagrangian. Boussinesq's equations for long water waves are used as a typical example in presenting the theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 1965 , pp. 273 - 283
Copyright
© 1965 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boussinesq, J. 1877 Essai sur la théorie des eaux courantes. Mém. Prés. Acad. Sci., Paris.Google Scholar
Courant, R. & Hilbert, D. 1953 Methods of Mathematical Physics, vol. i. New York: Interscience.
Korteweg, D. J. & de Vries, G. 1895 Phil. Mag. 39, 422.
Landau, L. D. & Lifshitz, E. M. 1960 Mechanics. London: Pergamon Press.
Noether, E. 1918 Invariant Variationsprobleme. Nachr. Ges. Göttingen, 235.Google Scholar
Rüssman, H. 1961 Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal. 8, 353.
Stokes, G. G. 1847 Camb. Trans. 8, (also Collected Papers, 1, 197).
Whitham, G. B. 1965 Proc. Roy. Soc. A, 283, 238.