Shallow water dynamics on linear shear flows and plane beaches

Abstract

Long waves in shallow water propagating over a background shear flow towards a sloping beach are being investigated. The classical shallow-water equations are extended to incorporate both a background shear flow and a linear beach profile, resulting in a non-reducible hyperbolic system. Nevertheless, it is shown how several changes of variables based on the hodograph transform may be used to transform the system into a linear equation which may be solved exactly using the method of separation of variables. This method can be used to investigate the run-up of a long wave on a planar beach including the development of the waterline.