Solitary waves of the regularised long-wave equation

A finite element solution of the Regularised Long Wave Equation, based on Galerkin's method using cubic splines as element shape functions, is set up. A linear stability analysis shows the scheme to be unconditionally stable. Test problems, including the migration and interaction of solitary waves, are used to validate the method, which is found to be accurate and efficient. The three invariants of the motion are evaluated to determine the conservation properties of the algorithm. The temporal evolution of a Maxwellian initial pulse is then studied.