WAVES GENERATED BY A PISTON-TYPE WAVEMAKER

Abstract

When a wavemaker generates a finite number of waves, it has been found that one of the first and one of the last waves in such a burst is considerably larger than the average A mathematical model, based on the linearized governing equations, is used for the particular problem of the waves generated by a sinusoidally moving piston-type wavemaker starting from rest Theoretical results for the magnitude of the large wave relative to the average agree fairly well with experiments, however, the actual wave height is smaller in the experiments than predicted by theory It is shown, by extending the classical wavemaker theory to second order, that finite amplitude effects do not offer an explanation However, pistons rarely fit the tank dimensions exactly, and an approximate evaluation indicates that the discrepancy between predicted and observed wave heights can be attributed to the effects of leakage around the piston.