Effects of vorticity on solitary waves

Abstract

The vorticity effect on solitary wave profiles has not been solved experimentally; previous studies theoretically and numerically showed that when a solitary wave progressed in the positive direction, the effective wavelength of a solitary wave with positive vorticity increased. Using laboratory experiments and fully nonlinear numerical simulations, we here show that the effective wavelength is extended more when positive vorticity is given to a progressive wave in the positive direction. We further show that the total energy increases with increasing positive vorticity, demonstrating that a wave with positive vorticity propagates with less attenuation and lasts longer than a solitary wave with no vorticity. We anticipate that our outcomes will provide a starting point for more sophisticated methods to investigate the effect of vorticity on solitary waves in laboratory experiments and numerical simulations.