Oblique water wave scattering by bottom undulation in a two-layer fluid flowing through a channel

Abstract

The problem of oblique wave (internal wave) propagation over a small deformation in a channel flow consisting of two layers was considered. The upper fluid was assumed to be bounded above by a rigid lid, which is an approximation for the free surface, and the lower one was bounded below by an impermeable bottom surface having a small deformation; the channel was unbounded in the horizontal directions. Assuming irrotational motion, the perturbation technique was employed to calculate the first-order corrections of the velocity potential in the two fluids by using Green’s integral theorem suitably with the introduction of appropriate Green’s functions. Those functions help in calculating the reflection and transmission coefficients in terms of integrals involving the shape function c(x) representing the bottom deformation. Three-dimensional linear water wave theory was utilized for formulating the relevant boundary value problem. Two special examples of bottom deformation were considered to validate the results. Consideration of a patch of sinusoidal ripples (having the same wave number) shows that the reflection coefficient is an oscillatory function of the ratio of twice the x-component of the wave number to the ripple wave number. When this ratio approaches one, the theory predicts a resonant interaction between the bed and the interface, and the reflection coefficient becomes a multiple of the number of ripples. High reflection of incident wave energy occurs if this number is large. Similar results were observed for a patch of sinusoidal ripples having different wave numbers. It was also observed that for small angles of incidence, the reflected energy is greater compared to other angles of incidence up to π / 4. These theoretical observations are supported by graphical results.