Harmonic Generation of Shallow Water Waves Over Topography

Abstract

We investigate the reflection and nonlinear interaction between the first and second harmonics of a two-dimensional Boussinesq wavetrain. Effects of topography are included, the depth departing from a constant in a finite region. It is found that topography can speed up or retard energy transfer between first and second harmonics. The reflection coefficient in the present context is significantly different from the one obtained by using linear theory. This is partly due to partitioning of energy between harmonics.