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Ship waves and Kelvin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2014

F. Dias
F. Dias*
Affiliation:
School of Mathematical Sciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
*
†Email address for correspondence: frederic.dias@ucd.ie
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Abstract

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Ship wakes are fascinating. They can be observed by the human eye and appear to have a V shape when the ship is advancing at constant speed along a straight trajectory. Under idealized conditions, Kelvin found that the angle between the two branches of the V is ${\sim }39^\circ $. However, in a number of cases, this angle appears to be smaller. This phenomenon has been studied by various authors, and several explanations have been suggested. The most elegant one, which is based on the amplitude of the ship waves rather than their phase, has recently been revisited by Darmon, Benzaquen & Raphaël (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 738, 2014, R3).

JFM classification

Waves/Free-surface Flows: Surface gravity waves Wakes/Jets: Wakes Waves/Free-surface Flows: Waves/Free-surface Flows
Type
Focus on Fluids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 746 , 10 May 2014 , pp. 1 - 4
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press 

References

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