Viscous damping of solitary waves in the mud banks of Kerala, West coast of India

Abstract

Analysis of wave damping in mud bank region following the process of transfer of wave energy to the interior of fluid column through the boundary layer and the energy loss computations owing to viscous shear beneath the solitary wave over a smooth horizontal surface are presented. It is shown that waves can almost or completely be dissipated over a mud bank of width about 3 - 4 km when the kinematic viscosity increases to 1 cm² sec ^-1. Waves of higher amplitude are dissipated much faster than those of lower amplitude.