Nonlinear Wave Dynamics

At the end of the twentieth century, nonlinear dynamics turned out to be one of the most challenging and stimulating ideas. Notions like bifurcations, attractors, chaos, fractals, etc. have proved to be useful in explaining the world around us, be it natural or artificial. However, much of our everyday understanding is still based on linearity, i. e. on the additivity and the proportionality. The larger the excitation, the larger the response-this seems to be carved in a stone tablet. The real world is not always reacting this way and the additivity is simply lost. The most convenient way to describe such a phenomenon is to use a mathematical term-nonlinearity. The importance of this notion, i. e. the importance of being nonlinear is nowadays more and more accepted not only by the scientific community but also globally. The recent success of nonlinear dynamics is heavily biased towards temporal characterization widely using nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Nonlinear spatio-temporal processes, i. e. nonlinear waves are seemingly much more complicated because they are described by nonlinear partial differential equations. The richness of the world may lead in this case to coherent structures like solitons, kinks, breathers, etc. which have been studied in detail. Their chaotic counterparts, however, are not so explicitly analysed yet. The wavebearing physical systems cover a wide range of phenomena involving physics, solid mechanics, hydrodynamics, biological structures, chemistry, etc.

In September 2006, research leaders in the field of coastal engineering, fluid mechanics, and wave theory met at Cornell University to celebrate the 60th birthday of Prof. Philip L-F Liu. This volume is a compilation of the research papers presented at the symposium, and includes both review and new research papers. Topics such as nonlinear wave theory, tsunamis, wave-structure interaction, turbulence, and modeling of complex sediment transport are discussed in this volume. All of the contributing authors are research collaborators of Prof. Liu, and include leaders in coastal engineering such as Maarten Dingemans, Hwung-Hweng Hwung, Nobu Kobayashi, Inigo Losada, Hocine Oumeraci, Costas Synolakis, and Harry Yeh.

This book marks the 60th birthday of Prof. Vladimir Erofeev – a well-known specialist in the field of wave processes in solids, fluids, and structures. Featuring a collection of papers related to Prof. Erofeev’s contributions in the field, it presents articles on the current problems concerning the theory of nonlinear wave processes in generalized continua and structures. It also discusses a number of applications as well as various discrete and continuous dynamic models of structures and media and problems of nonlinear acoustic diagnostics.

In September 2006, research leaders in the field of coastal engineering, fluid mechanics, and wave theory met at Cornell University to celebrate the 60th birthday of Prof. Philip L-F Liu. This volume is a compilation of the research papers presented at the symposium, and includes both review and new research papers. Topics such as nonlinear wave theory, tsunamis, wave-structure interaction, turbulence, and modeling of complex sediment transport are discussed in this volume. All of the contributing authors are research collaborators of Prof. Liu, and include leaders in coastal engineering such as Maarten Dingemans, Hwung-Hweng Hwung, Nobu Kobayashi, Inigo Losada, Hocine Oumeraci, Costas Synolakis, and Harry Yeh.

This monograph is devoted to problems of propagation and stability of linear and nonlinear waves in continuous media with complex structure. It considers the different media, such as solid with cavities, preliminary deformed disperse medium, solid with porosity filled by the electrically conductive and non-conductive liquid, magnetoelastic, piezo-semiconductors, crystals with dislocations, composites with inclusions, an electrically conductive asymmetrical liquid, a mixture of gas with a drop liquid. The book also considers the propagation of a laser beam through a two-level medium. The presented results are based on methods of evolution and modulation equations that were developed by the authors. The book is intended for scientific and technical researchers, students and post-graduate students specializing in mechanics of continuous media, physical acoustics, and physics of the solid state.

This book addresses the fascinating phenomena associated with nonlinear waves and spatio-temporal patterns. These appear almost everywhere in nature from sand bed forms to brain patterns, and yet their understanding still presents fundamental scientific challenges. The reader will learn here, in particular, about the current state-of-the art and new results in: Nonlinear water waves: resonance, solitons, focusing, Bose-Einstein condensation, as well as and their relevance for the sea environment (sea-wind interaction, sand bed forms, fiber clustering) Pattern formation in non-equilibrium media: soap films, chimera patterns in oscillating media, viscoelastic Couette-Taylor flow, flow in the wake behind a heated cylinder, other pattern formation. The editors and authors dedicate this book to the memory of Alexander Ezersky, Professor of Fluid Mechanics at the University of Caen Normandie (France) from September 2007 to July 2016. Before 2007, he had served as a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Nizhny Novgorod (Russia). The chapters have been written by leading scientists in Nonlinear Physics, and the topics chosen so as to cover all the fields to which Prof. Ezersky himself contributed, by means of experimental, theoretical and numerical approaches. The volume will appeal to advanced students and researchers studying nonlinear waves and pattern dynamics, as well as other scientists interested in their applications in various natural media.

Now in an accessible paperback edition, this classic work is just as relevant as when it first appeared in 1974, due to the increased use of nonlinear waves. It covers the behavior of waves in two parts, with the first part addressing hyperbolic waves and the second addressing dispersive waves. The mathematical principles are presented along with examples of specific cases in communications and specific physical fields, including flood waves in rivers, waves in glaciers, traffic flow, sonic booms, blast waves, and ocean waves from storms.

Nonlinear Ocean Dynamics: Synthetic Aperture Radar delivers the critical tools needed to understand the latest technology surrounding the radar imaging of nonlinear waves, particularly microwave radar, as a main source to understand, analyze and apply concepts in the field of ocean dynamic surface. Filling the gap between modern physics quantum theory and applications of radar imaging of ocean dynamic surface, this reference is packed with technical details associated with the potentiality of synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The book also includes key methods needed to extract the value-added information necessary, such as wave spectra energy, current pattern velocity, internal waves, and more. This book also reveals novel speculation of a shallow coastal front: named as Quantized Marghany's Front. Rounding out with practical simulations of 4-D wave-current interaction patterns using using radar images, the book brings an effective new source of technology and applications for today’s coastal scientists and engineers. Solves specific problems surrounding the nonlinearity of ocean surface dynamics in synthetic aperture radar data Helps develop new algorithms for retrieving ocean wave spectra and ocean current movements from synthetic aperture radar Includes over 100 equations that illustrate how to follow examples in the book