Numerical Modeling of the Hyperbolic Mild-Slope Equation in Curvilinear Coordinates

The mild-slope equation is familiar to coastal engineers as it can effectively describe wave propagation in nearshore regions. However, its computational method in Cartesian coordinates often renders the model inaccurate in areas with irregular shorelines, such as estuaries and harbors. Based on the hyperbolic mild-slope equation in Cartesian coordinates, the numerical model in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates is developed. The transformed model is discretized by the finite difference method and solved by the ADI method with space-staggered grids. The numerical predictions in curvilinear coordinates show good agreement with the data obtained in three typical physical experiments, which demonstrates that the present model can be used to simulate wave propagation, for normal incidence and oblique incidence, in domains with complicated topography and boundary conditions.