Since the first description by John Scott Russel in 1834, the solitary wave phenomenon has attracted considerable interests from scientists. The most interesting discovery since then has been the ability to integrate most of the nonlinear wave equations which govern solitary waves, from the Korteweg-de Vries equation to the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, in the 1960's. From that moment, a huge amount of theoretical works can be found on solitary waves. Due to the fact that many physical phenomena can be described by a soliton model, applications have followed each other, in telecommunications

Edited by R.H.J. Grimshaw, this book covers the topic of solitary waves in fluids.

This book surveys analytical and numerical techniques appropriate to the description of fluid motion with an emphasis on the most widely used techniques exhibiting the best performance.Analytical and numerical solutions to hyperbolic systems of wave equations are the primary focus of the book. In addition, many interesting wave phenomena in fluids are considered using examples such as acoustic waves, the emission of air pollutants, magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar corona, solar wind interaction with the planet venus, and ion-acoustic solitons.

This book surveys analytical and numerical techniques appropriate to the description of fluid motion with an emphasis on the most widely used techniques exhibiting the best performance.Analytical and numerical solutions to hyperbolic systems of wave equations are the primary focus of the book. In addition, many interesting wave phenomena in fluids are considered using examples such as acoustic waves, the emission of air pollutants, magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar corona, solar wind interaction with the planet venus, and ion-acoustic solitons.

Starting with the basic notions and facts of the mathematical theory of waves illustrated by numerous examples, exercises, and methods of solving typical problems Chapters 1 & 2 show e.g. how to recognize the hyperbolicity property, find characteristics, Riemann invariants and conservation laws for quasilinear systems of equations, construct and analyze solutions with weak or strong discontinuities, and how to investigate equations with dispersion and to construct travelling wave solutions for models reducible to nonlinear evolution equations. Chapter 3 deals with surface and internal waves in an incompressible fluid. The efficiency of mathematical methods is demonstrated on a hierarchy of approximate submodels generated from the Euler equations of homogeneous and non-homogeneous fluids. The self-contained presentations of the material is complemented by 200+ problems of different level of difficulty, numerous illustrations, and bibliographical recommendations.