Comparative study of analytical models with linear and quadratic pressure drop conditions on a perforated plate in water waves

Abstract

Proper pressure drop conditions are essential in predicting hydrodynamic performance of perforated structures in the framework of a potential flow theory. In this study, we investigate water waves passing through a perforated plate with various pressure drop models to examine how pressure drop conditions affect the hydrodynamic performance of perforated structures. We derive the analytical solutions of waves across the perforated plate by adopting three commonly pressure drop conditions, including one linear pressure drop condition (LPDC), and two quadratic pressure drop conditions (QPDCs). A series of laboratory experiments are conducted to validate the present theoretical results. We compare the hydrodynamic performance between the experimental data and the theoretical solutions with the three different pressure drop models, typically for wave reflection coefficients, dynamic pressures, and velocity fields measured by the technique of particle image velocimetry in the experiments. It is found that the existing pressure drop models can predict well wave reflection coefficients, dynamic pressure, and velocity profiles at certain conditions. However, the linear wave solutions associated with LPDC or QPDCs generally underpredict the amplitude of particle velocity near the free surface on the perforated plate. This underestimation increases largely as the wave steepness increases. The LPDC performance relies much on the selection of empirical coefficients. For the QPDCs, the analytical models show deviated results from the experimental data for wave reflection coefficients when the wave steepness is relatively low.