Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T00:44:29.413Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Long waves in running water

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

J. C. Burns
Affiliation:
Department of MathematicsUniversity of Manchester

Abstract

Classical shallow-water theory for the propagation of long waves in running water is modified by the inclusion of the effects of the vorticity present in the main stream as the result of the action of viscosity. When this vorticity is assumed constant, a non-linear theory can be used, but for more general velocity distributions in the main stream it is necessary to linearize the problem.

In the linearized theory, a general equation is obtained connecting the wave velocity with the velocity in the undisturbed stream and this is solved in several special cases. It is shown generally that the wave velocity relative to the mean flow is always greater than the value given by the classical theory. The wave velocity relative to the bottom of the stream has two values, one less than the minimum stream velocity and the other greater than the maximum stream velocity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1953

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

(1)Biésel, F.Étude théorique de la houle en eau courante. Houille blanche, 5 (1950), 279–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2)Coulson, C. A.Waves, 3rd ed. (Edinburgh, 1944).Google Scholar
(3)Lamb, H.Hydrodynamics, 6th ed. (Cambridge, 1932).Google Scholar
(4)Stokes, G. G.Trans. Camb. phil. Soc. 8 (1847), 441Google Scholar
Stokes, G. G.Collected papers, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1880), p. 197.Google Scholar
(5)Thompson, P. D.The propagation of small surface disturbances through rotational flow. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 51 (1949), 463–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar