Scattering of water waves by inclined thin plate submerged in finite-depth water

Summary  The problem of water wave scattering by an inclined thin plate submerged in water of uniform finite depth is investigated here under the assumption of irrotational motion and linear theory. A hypersingular integral equation formulation of the problem is obtained by an appropriate use of Green's integral theorem followed by utilization of the boundary condition on the plate. This hypersingular integral equation involves the discontinuity in the potential function across the plate, which is approximated by a finite series involving Chebyshev polynomials. The coefficients of this finite series are obtained numerically by collocation method. The quantities of physical interest, namely the reflection and transmission coefficients, force and moment acting on the plate per unit width, are then obtained numerically for different values of various parameters, and are depicted graphically against the wavenumber. Effects of finite-depth water, angle of inclination of the plate with the vertical over the deep water and vertical plate results for these quantities are shown. It is observed that the deep-water results effectively hold good if the depth of the mid-point of the submerged plate below the free surface is of the order of one-tenth of the depth of the bottom. Received 30 November 2000; accepted for publication 26 June 2001