Diffraction of water waves by a submerged vertical plate

Abstract

A thin vertical plate makes small, simple harmonic rolling oscillations beneath the surface of an incompressible, irrotational liquid. The plate is assumed to be so wide that the resulting equations may be regarded as two-dimensional. In addition, a train of plane waves of frequency equal to the frequency of oscillation of the plate, is normally incident on the plate. The resulting linearized boundary-value problem is solved in closed form for the velocity potential everywhere in the fluid and on the plate. Expressions are derived for the first- and second-order forces and moments on the plate, and for the wave amplitudes at a large distance either side of the plate. Numerical results are obtained for the case of the plate held fixed in an incident wave-train. It is shown how these results, in the special case when the plate intersects the free surface, agree, with one exception, with results obtained by Ursell (1947) and Haskind (1959) for this problem.