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The most well-known trapped mode in the theory of water waves is the simple exponential solution derived by Stokes [313]. It describes a wave over a uniformly sloping beach that can travel unchanged in the direction of the shoreline, and that decays exponentially to zero in the seaward direction. The Stokes edge wave is characterized by being confined to or trapped by the boundary, in this case the beach, despite the fact that the fluid region is unbounded. Little interest was shown in this solution for over a 100 years. Thus Lamb [179], p. 447, states “it does not appear that the type of motion here referred to is very important.” Only in the last forty years or so have further examples of such trapped modes been discovered, and it was recognized that “there is now considerable evidence which indicates that edge waves are common in occurrence and practical use” (see Le Blond and Mysak's book [183], p. 227). Thus the aim of the present chapter is to review many papers representing a considerable progress in the investigation of edge waves and other types of trapped modes that have occurred during the past twenty-five years. The material here is to a great extent borrowed from a survey paper by Evans and Kuznetsov [75], but we also cover new results published since 1995, when that paper was written.
Now, the next waves of interest, that are easily seen by everyone and which are usually used as an example of waves in elementary courses, are water waves. As we shall soon see, they are the worst possible example, because they are in no respect like sound and light; they have all the complications that waves can have.
—The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 1, Section 51.4 (86)
The aim of the present book is to give a self-contained and up-to-date account of mathematical results in the linear theory of water waves. The study of different kinds of waves is of importance for various applications. For example, it is required for predicting the behavior of floating structures (immersed totally or partially) such as ships, submarines, and tension-leg platforms and for describing flows over bottom topography. Furthermore, the investigation of wave patterns of ships and other vehicles in forward motion is closely related to the calculation of the wave-making resistance and other hydrodynamic characteristics that are used in marine design. Another area of application is the mathematical modeling of unsteady waves resulting from such phenomena as underwater earthquakes, blasts, and the like.
The history of water wave theory is almost as old as that of partial differential equations. Their founding fathers are the same: Euler, Lagrange, Cauchy, Poisson. Further contributions were made by Stokes, Lord Kelvin, Kirchhoff, and Lamb, who constructed a number of explicit solutions.
As for the water-wave problem investigated in Part 1, it is natural to solve the Neumann–Kelvin problem by applying integral equation techniques, since Green's function is constructed. However, in the theory of ship waves this approach is less straightforward than in the theory of time-harmonic waves. First of all, well-posed statements of the two-dimensional Neumann–Kelvin problem are different for totally submerged and surface-piercing bodies because certain supplementary conditions should be imposed in the latter case. Another essential point distinguishes the Neumann–Kelvin problem for a subcritical flow from the water-wave problem. In fact, any solution to the homogeneous water-wave problem has a finite energy, but for solutions of the homogeneous Neumann–Kelvin problem the unconditional validity of this property is still an open question.
So, using integral equations, we have to rely on the method that does not involve an a priori knowledge of uniqueness in the boundary value problem. Such a method was applied to the water-wave problem in Chapters 2 and 3. Its main features are related to the analyticity of integral operators as functions of the parameter ν and to the properties of these operators in limiting cases.
As in Part 1, we treat the simplest problem first, and this is the two-dimensional problem of a body totally submerged in water of infinite depth (see Section 7.1).
This chapter is concerned with various statements of the two-dimensional Neumann-Kelvin problem for a surface-piercing body. We speak about various statements because the Neumann–Kelvin problem as it is formulated in Chapter 7 for totally submerged bodies proves to be under definite when a body is surface piercing. It took several decades to realize that this under-definiteness occurs and to develop several well-posed formulations of the problem (see a brief consideration of the question's history in Section 8.6).
The plan of this chapter is as follows. The problem augmented by general linear supplementary conditions is considered in Section 8.1. The question of total resistance to the forward motion for a surface-piercing cylinder is considered in a short Section 8.2, where we present formulae generalizing those in Section 7.3. A number of other statements of the Neumann–Kelvin problem are reviewed in Section 8.3. Among them, there are statements leading to the so-called least singular and wave-free solutions. Also, a statement of the Neumann–Kelvin problem for a tandem of surface-piercing cylinders is considered. This statement involves a set of four supplementary conditions canceling both the wave resistance and the spray resistance and providing a well-posed statement of the problem. This means that a unique solution exists for all values of the forward speed U except for a sequence tending to zero.
At the same time, for the exceptional values of U, examples of non-uniqueness are constructed in Section 8.4.
Here we give a brief account of physical assumptions (first section) and the mathematical approximation (second section) used for developing a mathematical model of water waves. The resulting linear boundary value problems are formulated in the third and fourth sections for the wave-body interaction and ship waves, respectively.
Mathematical Formulation
Conventions
Water waves (the terms surface waves and gravity waves are also in use) are created normally by a gravitational force in the presence of a free surface along which the pressure is constant. There are two ways to describe these waves mathematically. It is possible to trace the paths of individual particles (a Lagrangian description), but in this book an alternative form of equations (usually referred to as Eulerian) is adopted. The motion is determined by the velocity field in the domain occupied by water at every moment of the time t.
Water is assumed to occupy a certain domain W bounded by one or more moving or fixed surfaces that separate water from some other medium. Actually we consider boundaries of two types: the above-mentioned free surface separating water from the atmosphere, and rigid surfaces including the bottom and surfaces of bodies floating in and/or beneath the free surface.
It is convenient to use rectangular coordinates (x1, x2, y) with origin in the free surface at rest (which usually coincides with the mean free surface), and with the y axis directed opposite to the acceleration caused by gravity.
As in the case of time-harmonic waves (see Chapter 1), we begin with the simplest model, replacing a ship by a point source in the uniform forward motion in calm water. The corresponding velocity potential is sometimes referred to as the Kelvin source, but to keep the terminology unified we call it the Green's function in what follows. Similar to the theory of time-harmonic waves developed in Part 1, the theory of ship waves presented here relies essentially on Green's functions. They are of importance not only for proving solvability theorems (see Chapters 7 and 8) but also for constructing examples of trapped waves (nontrivial solutions to homogeneous boundary value problems) in Section 8.4.
The three-dimensional Green's function of a point source in deep water is considered in detail in Sections 6.1 and 6.2. General facts about the three-dimensional Green's function are considered in Section 6.1 and the far-field expansions for Green's function and the corresponding elevation of the free surface are obtained in Section 6.2. Two-dimensional Green's functions are treated in Section 6.3, which we begin with the simpler case of deep water (Subsection 6.3.1). For water of finite depth, which will be referred to as shallow water, we consider Green's function in Subsection 6.3.2.
In the present chapter, the first of two chapters dealing with surface-piercing bodies, we impose an essential restriction that no bounded part of the free surface is separated from infinity. For the three-dimentional problem, this means that the free surface is a connected two-dimensional region (possibly multiply connected). In two dimensions, the assumption requires that there is only one surface-piercing body. However, a finite number of totally submerged bodies might be present in both cases. Supplementing this general restriction by one condition of technical nature or another, a method was developed (essentially by John) for proving the uniqueness theorem for various geometries and all values of ν > 0 (see Section 3.2). Provided the uniqueness is established, the machinery of integral equations developed in Section 3.1 leads to the unique solvability of the water-wave problem. Without the assumption about uniqueness, the integral equations method possibly does not guaranee the solvability for a certain sequence of values tending to infinity. Moreover, application of integral equations is rather tricky for semisubmerged bodies even when the uniqueness holds because of so-called irregular frequencies, which are also investigated in Section 3.1.
Integral Equations for Surface-Piercing Bodies
The essential point in application of the integral equation techniques to the case of a surface-piercing body is that the wetted boundary S is not a closed surface (contour) in three (two) dimensions, and it is bounded by a curve (a finite set of points) along the body's intersection with the free surface.
Results presented in Chapter 9 provide no details of the transient behavior of flows and do not yield direct hydrodynamic corollaries. However, there are situations in which information about developing waves in time can be extracted so that it leads to specific properties of hydrodynamic characteristics. In particular, an asymptotic analysis allows us to do this at least for two classes of disturbances. One of these classes constitutes rapidly stabilizing disturbances (this class includes brief disturbances as an important subclass), and the second class is formed by high-frequency disturbances. Both of these classes can be treated by using the same technique of two-scale asymptotic expansions for velocity potentials. The latter allows us to derive principal terms in asymptotics of some hydrodynamic characteristics.
Rapidly Stabilizing Surface Disturbances
In this section we are concerned with the effect of rapidly stabilizing disturbances on magnitudes characterizing unsteady water waves. For this purpose we consider several initial-boundary value problems describing waves caused by surface and underwater disturbances. The main example of the first kind is given by a pressure system applied to the free surface at the initial moment and rapidly stabilizing to a given distribution (a particular case is an impulsive pressure system). Underwater disturbances are presented by a source having a strength rapidly stabilizing in time to a constant value, and a rapidly stabilizing bottom movement. Complete asymptotic expansions in powers of a nondimensional small duration of disturbance are constructed for velocity potentials.
It was demonstrated in Section 3.1 that in the presence of a surface-piercing obstacle the water-wave problem is solvable for an arbitrary right-hand-side term in the Neumann condition on the obstacle's surface. However, there is an uncertainty about the set of frequencies providing the solvability. According to the proof given in Subsection 3.1.1, a sequence νn → ∞ (n = 1, 2, …) possibly exists such that for these exceptional values the solvability could be violated for some data given on the obstacle's surface. In particular, this must occur for values νn that are point eigenvalues of the water-wave problem embedded in the continuous spectrum (the latter is known to be the whole positive half-axis as is shown in the Examples section of the Introduction). If a value of the spectral parameter ν belongs to the point spectrum, then the homogeneous problem possesses a nontrivial solution with finite energy, or in other words, there is no uniqueness of solution for the nonhomogeneous problem.
In this chapter (see Section 4.1), we give examples of such non-uniqueness for the two-dimensional and axisymmetric problems, and so the exceptional values of ν do exist at least for some obstacle geometries. Moreover, for every ν > 0 a certain family of obstacles exhibiting the non-uniqueness property can be obtained. An essential point in all these examples is the presence of an isolated portion of the free surface inside the obstacle where the eigenmode waves are trapped.
The simplest “obstacle” to be placed into water is a point source. The corresponding velocity potential (up to a time-periodic factor) is usually referred to as the Green's function. This notion is crucial for the theory we are going to present in this book, since a wide class of time-harmonic velocity potentials (in particular, solutions to the water-wave problem) admit representations based on Green's function (see Section 1.3).
Potentials constructed by using Green's functions form the basis for such different topics as proving solvability theorems (see Chapters 2 and 3) and constructing examples of trapped waves (nontrivial solutions to homogeneous boundary value problems given in Chapter 4).
The plan of this chapter is as follows. Beginning with Green's functions of point sources in water of infinite (Subsection 1.1.1) and finite (Subsection 1.1.2) depths, we proceed with straight line sources and ring sources (Section 1.2) arising in two-dimensional problems and problems with axial symmetry, respectively. Green's representation of velocity potentials and related questions are given in Section 1.3. Bibliographical notes (Section 1.4) contain references to original papers treating the material of this chapter as well as other related works.
Three-Dimensional Problems of Point Sources
Point Source in Deep Water
In the present subsection, we consider in detail Green's function describing the point source in deep water. In Subsection 1.1.1.1, we define it as a solution to the water-wave problem having Dirac's measure as the right-hand-side term in the equation.
The pilot of the airplane … succeeded in landing with roughly two-thirds of his horizontal tail surface out of action; some others have, unfortunately, not been so lucky. … The flutter problem is now generally accepted as a problem of primary concern in the design of current aircraft structures. Stiffness criteria based on flutter requirements are, in many instances, the critical design criteria. … There is no evidence that flutter will have any less influence on the design of aerodynamically controlled booster vehicles and re-entry gliders than it has, for instance, on manned bombers.
R. L. Bisplinghoff and H. Ashley in Principles of Aeroelasticity (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1962.)
Chapter 2 dealt with the subject of structural dynamics, which is the study of phenomena associated with the interaction of inertial and elastic forces in mechanical systems. In particular, the mechanical systems considered were one-dimensional continuous configurations that exhibit the general structural dynamic behavior of flight vehicles. If in the analysis of these structural dynamic systems aerodynamic loading is included, then the resulting dynamic phenomena may be classified as aeroelastic. As has been observed in Chapter 3, aeroelastic phenomena can have a significant influence on the design of flight vehicles. Indeed, these effects can greatly alter the design requirements that are specified for the disciplines of performance, structural loads, flight stability and control, and even propulsion.
Aeroelasticity is the term used to denote the field of study concerned with the interaction between the deformation of an elastic structure in an airstream and the resulting aerodynamic force. The interdisciplinary nature of the field can be best illustrated by Fig. 1.1, which depicts the interaction of the three disciplines of aerodynamics, dynamics, and elasticity. Classical aerodynamic theories provide a prediction of the forces acting on a body of a given shape. Elasticity provides a prediction of the shape of an elastic body under a given load. Dynamics introduces the effects of inertial forces. With the knowledge of elementary aerodynamics, dynamics, and elasticity, the student is in a position to look at problems in which two or more of these phenomena interact. One of those areas of interaction is the field of flight mechanics, which most students have studied in a separate course by the senior year. The present text will consider the three remaining areas of interaction:
between elasticity and dynamics (structural dynamics),
between aerodynamics and elasticity (static aeroelasticity), and
among all three (dynamic aeroelasticity).
Because of their importance to aerospace system design, these are appropriate for study in an undergraduate aeronautics/aeronautical engineering curriculum. In aeroelasticity one finds that the loads depend on the deformation (aerodynamics), and the deformation depends on the loads (structural mechanics/dynamics); thus one has a coupled problem. Consequently, prior study of all three constituent disciplines is necessary before a study in aeroelasticity can be undertaken.
I discovered that with increasing load, the angle of incidence at the wing tips increased perceptibly. It suddenly dawned on me that this increasing angle of incidence was the cause of the wing's collapse, as logically the load resulting from the air pressure in a steep dive would increase faster at the wing tips than at the middle. The resulting torsion caused the wings to collapse under the strain of combat maneuvers.
A. H. G. Fokker in The Flying Dutchman (Henry Holt and Company, 1931)
The field of static aeroelasticity is the study of flight vehicle phenomena associated with the interaction of aerodynamic loading induced by steady flow and the resulting elastic deformation of the lifting surface structure. These phenomena are characterized as being insensitive to the rates and accelerations of the structural deflections. There are two classes of design problems that are encountered in this area. The first and most common to all flight vehicles is the effect of elastic deformation on the airloads associated with normal operating conditions. These effects can have a profound influence on the performance, handling qualities, flight stability, and structural load distribution. The second class of problems involves the potential for static instability of the structure that will result in a catastrophic failure. This instability is often termed “divergence” and can impose a limit on the flight envelope.
The material presented in this chapter provides an introduction to some of these static aeroelastic phenomena.