The study on solitary waves generated by a piston-type wave maker

• We study on how to generate solitary waves in a wave flume.
• Solitary waves are generated by using a piston type wave maker.
• Water leakage through the gap between the wave paddle and the flume degenerate the wave height in a great amount.
• The modified method works better than the conventional one even if the wave paddle fits the flume imperfectly.

The focus of present study is on how to generate solitary waves in a wave flume using a piston type wave maker. Experimental observations are implemented to evaluate the stability of the generated solitary waves. A better “stability” implies that the generated solitary wave can travel a longer distance without an obvious decay. Another discovery of this study is the imperfect fitness of wave paddle to the flume could degenerate the solitary wave heights in a great amount. Numerical simulations are carried out to verify this. This study concludes that the method proposed by Wu et al. (2014) is effective for generating solitary waves, even if the wave paddle fits the wave flume imperfectly.