SOLITARY WAVES ON 2-DIMENSIONAL SLAB CONDUITS OF BUOYANT FLUID IN A MORE VISCOUS-FLUID

There has been some interest recently in the dynamics of buoyant low v iscosity conduits in surrounding more viscous fluids, motivated by app lications to geophysical phenomena. Most studies have been concerned w ith axisymmetric cylindrical conduits, and have shown that these condu its can support robust solitary waves. Here we develop the wave evolut ion equation for the analogous two-dimensional slab conduit, and show that this case also supports solitary waves, which are apparently stab le and can effectively survive collisions.