T-II-1

Far from the beach , i.e., when the sea is deep, water waves travel on the surface of the sea and their shape is not deformed too much. When the waves approach the beach their shape begins to change and eventually breaks upon touching the seashore.

Here we are interested in studying a simple model that captures the essential features of this physical system. More precisely we will examine the Burgers equation, a non-linear equation introduced as a toy model for turbulence. this equation can be explicitly integrated and, in the limit of zero viscosity, its solution generally displays discontinuities called shocks.