Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology

Dept. of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering

Course Code: NAME 6202
Course Name: Theory of Wave-Making Resistance

Assignment On
Derive the expressions for the water wave problem
(Brebbia and Walker)

Submitted By
Wasi Uddin Mahmud

ID: 0424122018

Submitted To
Professor Dr. Md. Shahjada Tarafder
Dept of NAME
BUET
Derive the expressions for water wave problem (Brebbia and Walker)
In this derivation, we explore the linear theory for water waves by solving the governing
equations and applying boundary conditions. The goal is to derive an expression for the

velocity potential and to obtain the dispersion relation that relates the wave frequency ,
wavenumber and water depth .

Figure 1: Coordinate System of Water Waves

In this analysis, we consider the inviscid motion of an incompressible fluid with finite depth

. We define a coordinate system fixed in space, where is the vertical coordinate

that increases upwards. The origin of this coordinate system is positioned at the still water
level (SWL), as illustrated in Figure 1. The velocity vector of the fluid can be represented in
Eulerian form.

Where are the velocity components in the direction of the axes.

Now, consider the Navier-Stokes equation for the motion of an incompressible fluid.

(1)

Where,
 = density of the fluid.

= pressure

= body force vector

= viscosity

= material derivative, define by-

(2)

= gradient vector

= velocity field, define by-

(3)

[Note that is measure of the rotationality of the fluid. For the assumption of zero viscosity
hence become zero.]

(4)

The equation 4 is called the irrotationality condition.

Now, the velocity potential function is defined by-

(5)

In steady flow is perpendicular to the direction of the flow of fluid. By using continuity
equation-

(6)

For incompressible flow,

 (7)

Consequently,

(8)

The incompressible inviscid fluid is govern by-

(9)

Where,

Another formulation can also be used for two dimensional flow field. It is based on the steam
function defined by-

(10)

The incompressibility equation ( ) is now satisfied identically, assuming that the

function is continuous. Now consider the irrotationality condition,

Then, (11)

Or simply:

(12)

Where is now the two-dimensional operator.

Surfaces of constant are the paths of the fluid particles in steady flow. Boundaries of the
solid surfaces in this formulation are the surfaces of constant .
The conditions on the free surface:

Figure 2: Boundary condition definitions

Consider a fluid on which disturbance of height above still water level are
propagating (Figure 2). The following condition will occur on the free surface.

a. Kinematic Condition: The vertical velocity at the free surface, taking into
consideration that the surface moves with the fluid,

(13)
[Note:

(13a)

(Taking partial differential both side) (13b)

(13c)
]

If the slope or is small we can neglect the term.

 Or, in terms of velocity potentioal

(14)

Now applying Taylor’s theorem,

(15)
[Note
Taylor’s Theorem:

] (15a)
For small disturbance,

(16)

b. Pressure Condition: Assume that the surface is at a constant pressure. By using

Bernoulli’s equation-

(17a)
At ,

(17b)

(17c)

Or, (17)
Where,

= Pressure just inside the liquid surface

= Pressure just outside the liquid surface

= Density of the fluid
 = Gravity

If we neglect the surface tension, we have

(18)
Or, by the argument above,

(19)

Now combining the kinematic condition with the last equation 19, we have

(20a)

Or, (20)

c. Solid surface: Assume a solid impermeable surface with negligible slope at

(21)

General solution for a fluid of a constant depth:

If we assume a separate solution,

(22)
Here , which is define by,

(23)

The real part of is-

(24)
And the imaginary part is-

(25)
[For the separation of variable only real part is needed.]
From the continuity equation,

(26a)

Or, (26b)

Or, (26c)
We can write equation 26c as-

(27)
Where,

We can write,

(28)
For this function to be equal for all x, y, z we must have,

(29)

Where is constant to be determined by the boundary conditions. The first equation of 29

gives the Helmholtz equation in two dimension

(30)
The second equation gives,

(31)
With boundary condition equation 31 become

(32a)

(32b)
The boundary condition on the free surface

(33)

Let the solution of is-

(33a)
Now applying first boundary condition,

(33b)

(33c)

(33d)

(33e)

(33f)
Apply second boundary condition,

(33g)

(33h)

(33i)

(33j)

(33k)
 (33l)

Using the earlier result for B as , the solution becomes:

Simplifying using hyperbolic function identities:

(33m)

Simplifying using hyperbolic function identities:

(33n)
From the above, it is seen that A cancels out, and the equation only involves κ, ω and g.
Therefore, the boundary conditions do not explicitly determine the value of A; it remains as
an arbitrary constant. In physical problems, A would typically be set by initial conditions or
normalized based on a specific condition (e.g., setting f(0) or f(z) to a known value).
Thus, we derived:

(34)

With the ‘dispersion’ relation for disturbances travelling on a liquid of depth

d. Hence,

(35)

It is the general solution for a harmonic disturbance where is any solution of

Helmholtz equation 30.
We can now calculate the wave amplitude using equation 19

(36a)

Or, (36b)

Or, (36c)
Omitting z and t terms,
 (36d)

Or, (36e)

(36f)

(36g)

Here time dependent factor is assumed. If we insert the time factor in the equation and
take the real part of both side,

(37)

Note that we assuming for the moment that and are real. Hence,

(38)

As is a solution of the Helmholtz equation, so must be , as they are just

proportional.

Linear wave theory

 Figure 3: Linear Wave

If we now consider a single sinusoidal wave of frequency (Figure 3) and take the x axis
perpendicular to the wave crests and in the direction of propagation, we have a free surface
disturbance of the form.

(39)

is a solution of the one dimensional Helmholtz equation:

(40)

The elevation has a harmonic solution:

(41)

Where is the wavenumber whence,

(42)
This represents the elevation of a linear airy wave of amplitude travelling in the direction
of x and increasing with a phase velocity or celerity c, given by:

(43)
Utilizing the linearized free surface boundary condition, we can write the velocity potential
for the motion as:

(44)
And the dispersion relation linking the frequency with the wave number obtained by
substituting this expression into the governing equation 9, is:

(45)
The particle velocities in x and z directions are:

(46)

(47)

The particle trajectories at mean depth is:

(48)
Or, taking the real part for actual displacement:

(49)

(50)

Taking the real part we obtain:

(51)
The particles describe ellipses centred on their mean position z= , with semi axes (figure 5)

(52)

(53)

For deep water where is large, the expression become:

(54)

(55)

(56)

The particle motion then decays as and the expression for the velocity potential becomes:

(57)
The dispersion relation becomes:

(58)

tends to 1 for large , hence for deep water:

(59)

Now for we required:

(60)
So the water may be considered deep if the depth is more than half the wavelength.
Now rewrite equation 58,

(61)

Or (62)
We see that the wave phase speed increases with increasing wavelength and decreases with
increasing angular frequency ω. As expected from equation (3.62), the higher-frequency
waves have shorter wavelengths (Figure 4).
Let us now compute the energy contained in one wavelength, by considering the potential
and kinetic energies of the particles contained within the region x = 0 to x = λ for unit width
of wave crest. The energy can be written E (ω, η, λ), where Eλ = kinetic energy of orbital
motion of particles + potential energy due to water-level change. We have:

Figure 4: Variation of celerity with wavelength and frequency

Now, the equation of wave can be written as:

(63)
Hence (taking into consideration the kinematic condition and Green's theorem) we can write:

(64)
where ∂/∂n represents differentiation along the normal to the surface z = η; Eλ is proportional
to the square of the wave 'amplitude' (ηmax) ²; the average energy per unit area of the surface
area of the wave field, E, is then given by:

For the Airy wave we can easily deduce the average energy below unit horizontal surface
area E as simply:
 (65)
Invoking the linear approximation, this may now be interpreted as the energy below unit area
of the surface itself.