After we derive the Serre system of equations of water wave theory from a generalized variational principle, we present some of its structural properties. We also propose a robust and accurate finite volume scheme to solve these equations in one horizontal dimension. The numerical discretization is validated by comparisons with analytical and experimental data or other numerical solutions obtained by a highly accurate pseudo-spectral method.

The computation of long wave propagation through the ocean obviously depends on the initial condition. When the waves are generated by a moving bottom, a traditional approach consists in translating the ‘frozen’ sea bed deformation to the free surface and propagating it. The present study shows the differences between the classical approach (passive generation) and the active generation where the bottom motion is included. The analytical solutions presented here exhibit some of the drawbacks of passive generation. The linearized solutions seem to be sufficient to consider the generation of water waves by a moving bottom.

We undertake a detailed comparison of the results of direct numerical simulations of the soliton gas dynamics for the Korteweg-de Vries equation with the analytical predictions inferred from the exact solutions of the relevant kinetic equation for solitons. Two model problems are considered: i) the propagation of a "trial" soliton through a one-component "cold" soliton gas consisting of randomly distributed solitons of approximately the same amplitude; and ii) the collision of two cold soliton gases of different amplitudes (the soliton gas shock tube problem) leading to the formation of an expanding incoherent dispersive shock wave. In both cases excellent agreement is observed between the analytical predictions of the soliton gas kinetics and the direct numerical simulations. Our results confirm the relevance of the kinetic equation for solitons as a quantitatively accurate model for macroscopic non-equilibrium dynamics of incoherent soliton ensembles.