| Internal solitary waves are an important small scale oceanographic phenomenon. They provide a mechanism to move tidal energy into the shorter wavelengths of the wave spectrum. The shoaling and breaking of internal solitary waves is important to biological systems, providing nutrient mixing and sediment transport.; This work presents numerical simulations, using both a vorticity stream function based code, and a new primitive variable code, focusing on the areas of wave propagation and their interaction with topography.; The simulation wave characteristics are compared to first order KdV theory and a newer fully nonlinear interfacial wave theory developed by Choi and Camassa. Wave characteristics for smaller wave amplitudes agree reasonably well with KdV. For all wave amplitudes investigated, the fully nonlinear theory gives the correct qualitative trends. The presence of even a thin pycnocline causes the waves to be significantly slower and narrower than interfacial waves.; The maximum run-up of the wave during the reflection from a wall is accurately predicted by the third order results of Su and Mirie. The wall residence time, a practical measure of the phase shift, decreases for small amplitude waves, but increases for larger amplitude waves.; In cases of interaction with a step-shelf or with a slope-shelf topography, measures of energy dissipation rates and mixing are presented. It is shown quantitatively that energy dissipation does not necessarily correlate with the amount of mixing experienced. |
