Abstract: Higher order Boussinesq-type equations for wave propagation over variable bathymetry were derived. The time dependent free surface boundary conditions were used to compute the change of the free surface in time domain. The free surface velocities and the bottom velocities were connected by the exact solution of the Laplace equation. Taking the velocities on half relative water depth as the fundamental unknowns, terms relating to the gradient of the water depth were retained in the inverse series expansion of the exact solution, with which the problem was closed. With enhancements of the finite order Taylor expansion for the velocity field, the application range of the present model was extended to the slope bottom which is not so mild. For linear properties, some validation computations of linear shoaling and Booij’s tests were carried out. The problems of wave-current interactions were also studied numerically to test the performance of the enhanced Boussinesq equations associated with the effect of currents. All these computational results confirm perfectly to the theoretical solution as well as other numerical solutions of the full potential problem available.

Key words: higher order Boussinesq model, wave-current interaction, uneven bottom