scholarly journals Ship waves in the presence of uniform vorticity

2014 ◽  
Vol 742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simen Å. Ellingsen

AbstractLord Kelvin’s result that waves behind a ship lie within a half-angle $\phi _{\mathit{K}}\approx 19^{\circ }28'$ is perhaps the most famous and striking result in the field of surface waves. We solve the linear ship wave problem in the presence of a shear current of constant vorticity $S$, and show that the Kelvin angles (one each side of wake) as well as other aspects of the wake depend closely on the ‘shear Froude number’ $\mathit{Fr}_{\mathit{s}}=VS/g$ (based on length $g/S^2$ and the ship’s speed $V$), and on the angle between current and the ship’s line of motion. In all directions except exactly along the shear flow there exists a critical value of $\mathit{Fr}_{\mathit{s}}$ beyond which no transverse waves are produced, and where the full wake angle reaches $180^\circ $. Such critical behaviour is previously known from waves at finite depth. For side-on shear, one Kelvin angle can exceed $90^\circ $. On the other hand, the angle of maximum wave amplitude scales as $\mathit{Fr}^{-1}$ ($\mathit{Fr}$ based on size of ship) when $\mathit{Fr}\gg 1$, a scaling virtually unaffected by the shear flow.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Igor Shugan ◽  
Yang-Yih Chen

We present the kinematic model of the ship wake in the presence of horizontal subsurface current linearly varying with the depth of water. An extension of the Whitham–Lighthill theory for calm water is developed. It has been established that the structure of ship waves under the action of a shear flow can radically differ from the classical Kelvin ship wake model. Co propagating ship and shear current lead to increasing the total wedge angle up to full one 180° and decreases for the counter shear current. At relatively large unidirectional values of the shear current, cusp waves in the vicinity of the wedge boundary are represented by transverse waves and, conversely, by diverging waves directed almost perpendicular to the ship track for the opposite shear current. The presence of a shear flow crossing the direction of the ship’s movement gives a strong asymmetry of the wake. An increase in the perpendicular shear flow leads to an increase in the difference between the angles of the wake arms. The limiting value of the shear current corresponds to one or both arms angles equal to 90°. Transverse and divergent edge waves for this limiting case coincide.


Author(s):  
Hung-Chu Hsu ◽  
Marc Francius ◽  
Pablo Montalvo ◽  
Christian Kharif

This paper considers two-dimensional periodic gravity–capillary waves propagating steadily in finite depth on a linear shear current (constant vorticity). A perturbation series solution for steady periodic waves, accurate up to the third order, is derived using a classical Stokes expansion procedure, which allows us to include surface tension effects in the analysis of wave–current interactions in the presence of constant vorticity. The analytical results are then compared with numerical computations with the full equations. The main results are (i) the phase velocity is strongly dependent on the value of the vorticity; (ii) the singularities (Wilton singularities) in the Stokes expansion in powers of wave amplitude that correspond to a Bond number of 1/2 and 1/3, which are the consequences of the non-uniformity in the ordering of the Fourier coefficients, are found to be influenced by vorticity; (iii) different surface profiles of capillary–gravity waves are computed and the effect of vorticity on those profiles is shown to be important, in particular that the solutions exhibit type-2-like wave features, characterized by a secondary maximum on the surface profile with a trough between the two maxima.


2017 ◽  
Vol 830 ◽  
pp. 631-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Francius ◽  
C. Kharif

A numerical investigation of normal-mode perturbations of a two-dimensional periodic finite-amplitude gravity wave propagating on a vertically sheared current of constant vorticity is considered. For this purpose, an extension of the method developed by Rienecker & Fenton (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 104, 1981, pp. 119–137) is used for the numerical computations of the finite-amplitude waves on a linear shear current. This method enables to compute accurately waves with or without critical layers and pressure anomalies. The numerical results of the linear stability analysis extend the weakly nonlinear analytical results of Thomas et al. (Phys. Fluids, vol. 24, 2012, 127102) to fully nonlinear waves. In particular, the restabilization of the Benjamin–Feir modulational instability, whatever the depth, for an opposite shear current is confirmed. For these sideband instabilities, the numerical results show some deviations with the weakly nonlinear theory as the wave steepness of the basic wave and vorticity are increased. Besides the modulational instabilities, new instability bands corresponding to quartet and quintet instabilities, which are not sideband disturbances, are discovered. The present numerical results show that with opposite shear currents, increasing the shear reduces the growth rate of the most unstable sideband instabilities but enhances the growth rate of these quartet instabilities, which eventually dominate the Benjamin–Feir modulational instabilities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 808 ◽  
pp. 668-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Li ◽  
Simen Å. Ellingsen

We consider waves radiated by a disturbance of oscillating strength moving at constant velocity along the free surface of a shear flow, which, when undisturbed, has uniform horizontal vorticity of magnitude $S$. When no current is present the problem is a classical one and much studied, and in deep water a resonance is known to occur when $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=|\boldsymbol{V}|\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}/g$ equals the critical value $1/4$ ($\boldsymbol{V}$: velocity of disturbance, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}$: oscillation frequency, $g$: gravitational acceleration). We show that the presence of a subsurface shear current can change this picture radically. Not only does the resonant value of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ depend strongly on the angle between $\boldsymbol{V}$ and the current’s direction and the ‘shear-Froude number’ $\mathit{Fr}_{s}=|\boldsymbol{V}|S/g$; when $\mathit{Fr}_{s}>1/3$, multiple resonant values – as many as four – can occur for some directions of motion. At sufficiently large values of $\mathit{Fr}_{s}$, the smallest resonance frequency tends to zero, representing the phenomenon of critical velocity for ship waves. We provide a detailed analysis of the dispersion relation for the moving oscillating disturbance, in both finite and infinite water depth, including for the latter case an overview of the different far-field waves which exist in different sectors of wave-vector space under different conditions. Owing to the large number of parameters, a detailed discussion of the structure of resonances is provided for infinite depth only, where analytical results are available.


1994 ◽  
Vol 274 ◽  
pp. 339-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-M. Vanden-Broeck

Solitary waves with constant vorticity in water of finite depth are calculated numerically by a boundary integral equation method. Previous calculations are confirmed and extended. It is shown that there are branches of solutions which bifurcate from a uniform shear current. Some of these branches are characterized by a limiting configuration with a 120° angle at the crest of the wave. Other branches extend for arbitrary large values of the amplitude of the wave. The corresponding solutions ultimately approach closed regions of constant vorticity in contact with the bottom of the channel. A numerical scheme is presented to calculate directly these closed regions of constant vorticity. In addition, it is shown that there are branches of solutions which do not bifurcate from a uniform shear flow.


2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 694-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-Young Han ◽  
Jong-Jin Baik

Abstract Convectively forced mesoscale flows in a shear flow with a critical level are theoretically investigated by obtaining analytic solutions for a hydrostatic, nonrotating, inviscid, Boussinesq airflow system. The response to surface pulse heating shows that near the center of the moving mode, the magnitude of the vertical velocity becomes constant after some time, whereas the magnitudes of the vertical displacement and perturbation horizontal velocity increase linearly with time. It is confirmed from the solutions obtained in present and previous studies that this result is valid regardless of the basic-state wind profile and dimension. The response to 3D finite-depth steady heating representing latent heating due to cumulus convection shows that, unlike in two dimensions, a low-level updraft that is necessary to sustain deep convection always occurs at the heating center regardless of the intensity of vertical wind shear and the heating depth. For deep heating across a critical level, little change occurs in the perturbation field below the critical level, although the heating top height increases. This is because downward-propagating gravity waves induced by the heating above, but not near, the critical level can hardly affect the flow response field below the critical level. When the basic-state wind backs with height, the vertex of V-shaped perturbations above the heating top points to a direction rotated a little clockwise from the basic-state wind direction. This is because the V-shaped perturbations above the heating top is induced by upward-propagating gravity waves that have passed through the layer below where the basic-state wind direction is clockwise relative to that above.


1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 940-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy T. Chan ◽  
Allen T. Chwang

1963 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. G. Brown ◽  
A. W. Marris

An experimental study of turbulent flow in a plane curved channel of depth-to-width ratio 8:1 and mean radius-to-width ratio 1.83:1 by means of measured distributions of mean peripheral velocity and pressure and flow visualization methods using dye. It appears that due to the large depth-to-width ratio, the secondary flow, though appreciable, is apparent mainly in the end plate regions. Even so it has a pronounced effect on the flow near the inner (convex) wall. It appears that the sharp curvature is effective in quenching the turbulence of the entering rectilinear shear flow at the inner wall of the curved channel by causing a mean flow acceleration in this region. The study indicates that localized backflows can occur at the inner wall at the meeting of secondary and main flows under near-laminar conditions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 873 ◽  
pp. 508-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin K. Smeltzer ◽  
Eirik Æsøy ◽  
Simen Å. Ellingsen

We report experimental observations of two canonical surface wave patterns – ship waves and ring waves – skewed by sub-surface shear, thus confirming effects predicted by recent theory. Observed ring waves on a still surface with sub-surface shear current are strikingly asymmetric, an effect of strongly anisotropic wave dispersion. Ship waves for motion across a sub-surface current on a still surface exhibit striking asymmetry about the ship’s line of motion, and large differences in transverse wavelength for upstream versus downstream motion are demonstrated, all of which is in good agreement with theoretical predictions. Neither of these phenomena can occur on a depth-uniform current. A quantitative comparison of measured versus predicted average phase shift for a ring wave is grossly mispredicted by no-shear theory, but in good agreement with predictions for the measured shear current. A clear difference in wave frequency within the ring wave packet is observed in the upstream versus downstream direction for all shear flows, while wave dispersive behaviour is identical to that for quiescent water for propagation normal to the shear current, as expected. Peak values of the measured two-dimensional Fourier spectrum for ship waves are shown to agree well with the predicted criterion of stationary ship waves, with the exception of some cases where results are imperfect due to the limited wavenumber resolution, transient effects and/or experimental noise. Experiments were performed on controlled shear currents created in two different ways, with a curved mesh and beneath a blocked stagnant-surface flow. Velocity profiles were measured with particle image velocimetry, and surface waves with a synthetic schlieren method. Our observations lend strong empirical support to recent predictions that wave forces on vessels and structures can be greatly affected by shear in estuarine and tidal waters.


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