Damping of large-amplitude solitary waves

We consider the damping of large-amplitude solitary waves in the framework of the extended Korteweg-de Vries equation (that is, the usual Korteweg-de Vries equation supplemented with a cubic nonlinear term) modified by the inclusion of a small damping term. The damping of a solitary wave is studied for several different forms of friction, using both the analytical adiabatic asymptotic theory and numerical simulations. When the coefficient of the cubic nonlinear term has the opposite sign to the coefficient of the linear dispersive term, the extended Kortweg-de Vries equation can support large-amplitude "thick" solitary waves. Under the influence of friction, these "thick" solitary waves decay and may produce one or more secondary solitary waves in this process. On the other hand, when the coefficient of the cubic nonlinear term has the same sign as the coefficient of the linear dispersive term, but the opposite sign to the coefficient of the quadratic nonlinear term, the action of friction may cause a solitary wave to decay into a wave packet. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.