Diffraction and remodelization of solitons around a false wall

This is a study of the propagation of surface solitons around and in front of a rigid wall placed in the center of a shallow-water tank. Particular in terest is focused on a vortex generated in the vicinity of the tip of the w all and in the two-dimensional remodelization of the soliton's shape downst ream. The theoretical model consists of solving the generalized Boussinesq shallow-water wave equations in a transformed computational plane which con tains uniform grid size. This transformation is done using an elliptic grid generation technique with all the equations solved using a second-order fi nite difference scheme. The results are compared qualitatively with experim ental results and predict satisfactorily the physical phenomenon that inclu des the Mach refection mechanism. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.