Wind set-down relaxation on a sloping beach (Q1383036)

This study addresses the time-dependent problem encountered when the wind in the wind set-down solution suddenly relaxes and the water gushes landward under the influence of the pressure gradient force. We call this problem the ``relaxation of the wind set-down.'' The difficulty in solving this problem is due to the moving singularity associated with the ever-changing location of the point where the sea surface intersects the sloping bottom. At this point the problem is only weakly hyperbolic, thus only weakly well-posed. We solve this problem numerically using two completely different types of numerical solvers, finite difference schemes and spectral methods. Both the MacCormack finite difference scheme and the Chebyshev spectral method concurred in their results, strongly suggesting the validity of the numerical solution. Our results indicate that no wave breaking occurs and that the water will slosh up and down the sloping bottom, similar to the behavior of a nonlinear gravity wave. The spectrum of this wave motion consists of peaks associated with the motion of regular gravity waves in a triangular basin, as well as frequency beatings associated with the movement of the singular point of the present problem.