Published February 1, 1996
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Journal Article
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A Lagrangian for water waves
Abstract
A Lagrangian for strongly nonlinear unsteady water waves (including overturning waves) is obtained. It is shown that the system of quadratic equations for the Stokes coefficients, which determine the shape of a steady wave (discovered by Longuet-Higgins 100 years after Stokes derived his system of cubic equations) directly follows from the canonical system of Lagrange equations. Applications to the investigation of the stability of water waves and to the construction of numerical schemes are pointed out.
Additional Information
©1996 American Institute of Physics. (Received 25 July 1995; accepted 30 October 1995) This paper arose from discussions with Professor P. G. Saffman. I am greatly indebted to him for these valuable discussions, his advice, and encouragement. I am grateful to Professor D. I. Meiron for stimulating discussions, which suggested the second question in the motivation of this paper (see the Introduction).Files
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- CaltechAUTHORS:BALpof96
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