Ship Waves in a Shallow and Narrow Channel

Abstract

Ship waves in a shallow and narrow channel such as a canal are greatly different from those in a deep open sea. In the present paper, ship waves in the channel restricted by vertical walls have been studied by numerical calculations together with data measured in laboratories and fields. A remarkable feature of the ship waves is the appearance of solitons ahead of the sailing ship. The calculated heights of soliton agree well with laboratory data by Ertekin et al. The maximum wave heights in the train of ship waves are also investigated and compared with laboratory data by Kurata and Oda and field data observed newly in the Shingashi river. The height of ship waves is greatly varied by the depth Froude number, the blockage coefficient and the river currents. The numerical model has been confirmed to be able to predict such ship waves in a shallow and narrow channel with satisfactory accuracy.