Damping of surface waves by a floating viscoplastic plate

Abstract

Surface waves have been observed to be brought to rest in finite time when a layer at the surface is impregnated with floating particles. A theoretical model is presented to explore whether a similar nonlinear damping process operates if the surface is covered by a thin plate of yield-stress fluid. The model demonstrates that the yield stress again arrests motion in finite time, although the final decay of the wave amplitude is faster than with floating particles.