An approximated method for the solution of elliptic problems in thin domains: Application to nonlinear internal waves

Realistic numerical simulations of nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) have been hampered by the need to use computationally expensive nonhydrostatic models. In this paper, we show that the solution to the elliptic problem arising from the incompressibility condition can be successfully approximated by a few terms (three at most) of an expansion in powers of the ratio (horizontal grid spacing)/(total depth). For an n dimensional problem, each term in the expansion is the sum of a function that satisfies a one-dimensional second-order ODE in the vertical direction plus, depending on the surface boundary condition, the solution to an n - 1 dimension elliptic problem, an evident saving over having to solve the original n-dimensional elliptic problem. This approximation provides the physically correct amount of dispersion necessary to counteract the nonlinear steepening tendency of NLIWs. Experiments with different types of NLIWs validate the approach. Unlike other methods, no ad hoc artificial dispersion needs to be introduced.