Numerical computation of steep gravity waves in shallow water

An efficient numerical scheme to compute steep gravity waves in water of shallow uniform depth is described. The problem is formulated as a system of integrodifferential equations for the free surface. A numerical procedure based on Newton’s iterations is devised to solve these equations. Solutions of high accuracy for depth as small as 1/120 of a wavelength are presented. Numerical confirmation is obtained for the existence of maxima of the potential and kinetic energies of the waves as functions of the steepness.