Abstract
The aim is to assess the combined effect of diffusion and dispersion on shocks in the moderate dispersion regime. For a diffusive dispersive approximation of the equations of one-dimensional elasticity (or p-system), we study convergence of traveling waves to shocks. The problem is recast as a Hamiltonian system with small friction, and an analysis of the length of oscillations yields convergence in the moderate dispersion regime epsilon, delta -> 0 with delta = o(epsilon), under hypotheses that the limiting shock is admissible according to the Liu E-condition and is not a contact discontinuity at either end state. A similar convergence result is proved for traveling waves of the quantum hydrodynamic system with artificial viscosity as well as for a viscous Peregrine-Boussinesq system where traveling waves model undular bores, in all cases in the moderate dispersion regime.