Abstract
Fluid particles in translating surface gravity waves have an orbital motion which decreases in size with increasing mean depth. These wave characteristics came from observations and were not forecast theoretically. The classical potential flow model is incapable of explaining the particle movement due to the irrotational assumption and to a flaw in carrying out the method. When a wave passes by an observer from left to right, the particles move clockwise under a crest and a trough. This correct conclusion is consistent with what the incorrect standard theory implies but should not be considered to have been derived from it.
Highlights
When a propagating surface gravity wave passes by an observer from left to right, what is to be noticed about the motion of a fluid particle? Small neutrally buoyant particles throughout the water column will help the observer to decide
In the fixed reference frame with the surface gravity wave moving from left to right past an observer, which way do the fluid particles rotate under the crest: clockwise or counter-clockwise? Clockwise is the correct answer, and it comes from an incorrect theory
Two facts are known from observations: the fluid particles have an orbital motion, and the size of the orbits decreases as the mean depth increases
Summary
When a propagating surface gravity wave passes by an observer from left to right, what is to be noticed about the motion of a fluid particle? Small neutrally buoyant particles throughout the water column will help the observer to decide. The orbital structure of the fluid particles, found in the more usual fixed reference frame, cannot be recovered from that model and would never have been forecast from it initially Observations first provided this wave characteristic, and the appropriate physics and mathematics have still not completely caught up to it. Since turbulence and wave breaking rarely occur, the centrifugal force must be balanced by an equal but opposite inward force, and in the present circumstance that balancing force can only be a pressure gradient This balance of forces led further to the prediction [7] that in a propagating surface gravity wave the orbital velocity and the pressure should decrease at significantly different rates with the increase in depth, whereas the potential flow theory gives the same rate of decay for both variables
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