On the Dispersion of Linear Kinematic Waves

The Mathematical Institute, University of Edinburgh (Communicated by M. J. Lighthill, F.R.S.—Received 31 December 1957) 

The theory of kinematic waves, initiated by Lighthill Whitham, is taken up for the case when the concentration k and flow q are related by a series of linear equations. If the initial disturbance is hump-like it is shown that the resulting kinematic wave can be usually described by the growth of its mean and variance, the former moving with the kinematic wave velocity and the latter increasing proportionally to the distance travelled. Conditions for these moments to be calculated from the Laplace transform of the solution, without the need of inversion, are obtained and it is shown that for a large class of waves, the ultimate wave form is Gaussian. The power of the method is shown in the analysis of a kinematic temperature wave, where the Laplace transform of the solution cannot be inverted. 

A kinematic wave may be called linear if the relationship between the flow and the concentration can be expressed by one or more linear equations, algebraic or differential. The term linear may also be applied when a diffusion term is included in the continuity equation as is done in 3 of Lighthill  

Whitham (1955a). Except in the trivial case when q = ak + b and the simple continuity equation 

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