Effects of Waves on the Boundary Layer of a Surface-Piercing Body

Abstract

The boundary-value problem for the boundary layer of a surface-piercing body is formulated in a rigorous manner in which proper consideration is given to the viscous-fluid free-surface boundary conditions. Simplifications that are appropriate for small-amplitude waves are investigated. To this end, order-of-magnitude estimates are derived for the flow field in the neighborhood of the body-boundary-layer/free-surface juncture. It is shown that, for laminar flow, the parameter Ak/ϵ, where Ak is the wave steepness and ϵ is the nondimensional boundary-layer thickness, is important for characterizing the flow. In particular, for Ak/ϵ sufficiently large such that the free-surface boundary conditions have a significant influence a consistent formulation requires the solution of higher-order viscous-flow equations. For turbulent flow, these conclusions cannot be reached with the same degree of certainty. Numerical results are presented for the model problem of a combination Stokes-wave/flat plate. For this initial investigation, the usual thin-boundary-layer equations were solved using a three-dimensional implicit finite-difference method. The calculations are for laminar and turbulent flow and both demonstrate and quantify the influence of waves on boundary-layer development. Calculations were made using both the small-amplitude-wave and more approximate free-surface boundary conditions. Both the external-flow pressure gradients and the free-surface boundary conditions are shown to have a significant influence. The former influence penetrates to a depth of about half the wavelength and the latter is confined to a region very close to the free surface.