Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / ia / Paper 2 / 6B (Differential Equations)

Linearize about rest and a flat surface. An appropriate small-amplitude scaling has $|\zeta |/h\ll 1$ and $|u|/\sqrt{gh}\ll 1$, with gradients on fixed common length/time scales. Products such as $(\zeta u{)}_x$ and $u{u}_x$ are then higher order. The linearized shallow water equations becomeDifferentiate the first with respect to time and substitute the second:The shallow-water dispersion relation therefore has a constant wave speed. In these equations $g$ is gravitational acceleration, despite the source's label “gravitational constant”; $gh$ has units of speed squared.

In the characteristic coordinates, the chain rule gives ${\partial }_x={\partial }_{\xi }+{\partial }_{\eta }$ and ${\partial }_t=c({\partial }_{\xi }-{\partial }_{\eta })$. HenceIntegrating this mixed derivative gives $\zeta =F(\xi )+G(\eta )$, a sum of oppositely traveling profiles. The initial data require $F+G=u_0$ and $c(F^{\prime }-G^{\prime })=v_0$, soIntegrating the profiles and matching their total additive constant gives the D'Alembert formula with initial velocity:Here $u_0$ names the initial surface displacement, rather than the water velocity $u$ appearing in the original shallow water equations. The formula verifies both initial conditions directly.

With zero initial time derivative, the integral term in the D'Alembert formula vanishes. The Heaviside step function representation givesThe rectangular pulse splitting under the wave equation consists of two width-two pulses of height $1/2$, moving left and right at speed $c$. At $t=0$ they coincide and add to the initial height-one pulse. Before $ct=1$ the overlapping interval has height one; after $ct=1$ the two pulses are separated. Values exactly at the fronts depend on the chosen $H(0)$ convention. Away from the fronts the equation holds classically, and across the fronts it holds as a weak solution of the wave equation.