Recovery of steady rotational wave profiles from pressure measurements at the bed

Abstract

We derive equations relating the pressure at a flat seabed and the free-surface profile for steady gravity waves with constant vorticity. The resulting set of nonlinear equations enables the recovery of the free surface from pressure measurements at the bed. Furthermore, the flow vorticity (unknown a priori) is determined solely from the bottom pressure as part of the recovery method. This approach is applicable even in the presence of stagnation points and its efficiency is illustrated via numerical examples.