Viscous Flow Evolution and Boundary Layer Characteristics during the Head-On Collision of Solitary Waves

Abstract

Lee, T.-C.; Chang, C.-H., and Tang, C.-J., 2021. Viscous flow evolution and boundary layer characteristics during the head-on collision of solitary waves. Journal of Coastal Research, 37(3), 544–556. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Viscous shear flow near the bottom during the head-on collision of two solitary waves is investigated using a stream function–vorticity model. Fully nonlinear free-surface conditions are satisfied numerically at every time step. The bottom boundary-layer flow region is locally refined to explore its physical characteristics through detailed vorticity transport in the shear layer beneath the two solitary waves during their collision. Both symmetric and asymmetric head-on collisions are examined and discussed. The wave deformations are compared with the results of other studies for validation, and the fluid mechanisms in the flow field are illustrated with streamline, equivorticity line, path line, and timeline plots to reveal the interaction processes. It is revealed that the wave interaction behaves nonlinearly not only at the free surface but also in the vorticity exchanges near the bottom.