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Plunger-type wavemaker theory

a
Yung-Chao Wu
a
Department of Civil Engineering , National Chiao Tung
University , Hsin-chu, 30049, China
Published online: 19 Jan 2010.

To cite this article: Yung-Chao Wu (1988) Plunger-type wavemaker theory, Journal of Hydraulic
Research, 26:4, 483-491, DOI: 10.1080/00221688809499206

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221688809499206

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 Plunger-type wavemaker theory
Theorie d'un générateur de houle a plongeur oscillant
YUNG-CHAO WU
Associate Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering,
National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30049, China
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SUMMARY
A theoretical study of small amplitude waves generated by a sinusoidally oscillating wedge-shape plunger in
afinitedepth wave tank is presented in this paper by using a semi-analytical method, the boundary colloca­
tion method. The ratios between wave amplitude and wavemaker stroke are established. This theory is
compared to the conformal transformation method and laboratory measurements. Results show that this
theory is in reasonably good agreement with the laboratory data.

RESUME
Cet article présente Pétude théorique de houles de faible amplitude générées par un piongeur oscillant en
forme de coin place dans un bassin de profondeur finie. Le calcul est basé sur une methode semi-analytique
de collocation. On a établi les rapports entre 1'amplitude des ondes et la course du générateur. Cette theorie
est comparée a la methode de transformation conforme et a des mesures de laboratoire. Les résultats
montrent un assez bon accord avec les valeurs expérimentales.

1 Introduction
Two main classes of mechanical type wavemakers are utilized in laboratory wave studies. The
first is the movable wall type generators, including piston- and paddle-type wavemakers, which
generate waves by a simple oscillatory motion in the direction of wave propagation. The second is
the plunger-type wavemaker, which generates waves by oscillating vertically in the surface of
water.
Havelock [7] presented a general theory for wave generation on a water surface by a generator,
which has long been known as the wavemaker theory. Most of the investigators, Biésel and
Suquet [1], Ursell, Dean and Yu [12], Madsen [9,10], Fontanet [6], Hyun [8], Flick and Guza [5],
Buhr Hansen and Svendsen [2], concentrated on studies of waves generated by piston-type and
paddle-type wavemaker theory. The present study considers plunger-type wavemakers. Plunger-
type wavemakers are theoretically more complex and have not been very extensively studied.
Ursell [11] analyzed the waves generated by a circular cylinder oscillating in the water surface. He
imposed a boundary condition on the surface of the cylinder such that the velocity component of
the fluid normal to the boundary was equal to the corresponding component of the velocity of the
cylinder. He showed that the ratio of wave amplitude and stroke would depend on a dimension-
less parameter kr, where k is the wave number and r the cylinder radius. By using a two parameter
conformal transformation, Wang [13] was able to consider plungers of more general shape.
Similarly to Ursell's case for the cylinder, he showed that the ratio of wave amplitude and stroke

Received November 24, 1987. Open for discussion till February 28, 1989.

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC RESEARCH, VOL. 26, 1988, NO. 4 483

 amplitude for a given plunger geometry will depend only on kb, where b is the breadth of plunger
at still water level. Ellix and Arumugam [4] measured the waves produced by wedge shape
plunger, by using the FFT technique, they were able to evaluate the linear as well as the second
order nonlinear waves produced by plunger wavemaker in water of finite depth.
Wang's work was based on the assumption of deep water, therefore the effect of water depth was
not included in his analysis. Ellix and Arumugam's study was based on the analysis of experi­
mental data. By using the boundary collocation method (BCM), this paper will present a study of
small amplitude waves generated by a plunger wavemaker, including a discussion of the effect of
water depth.
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2 Formulation of the problem

The plunger wavemaker discussed herein consists a triangular cross-section wedge having a
width b and a mean submerged depth d as shown in Fig. 1. The plunger is forced to make small
vertical periodic oscillations of frequency w, so that surface waves are generated and propagated
outward on a semi-infinite channel of constant depth h.
By making the usually assumptions of classical hydrodynamics, i.e., the fluid is inviscid and
incompressible and the flow is irrotational, the problem can be treated within the framework of
small amplitude gravity wave theory and the solution can be represented by a velocity potential <t>
such that
^.\x ' * y y " (1)
in the fluid and it must satisfy the following boundary condition:
The bottom boundary condition (BBC)
0-0 at y = 0 (2)

x
►

Fig. 1. Definition sketch for theoretical analysis.

Schema de definition pour l'analyse théorique.

484 JOURNAL DE RECHERCHES HYDRAULIQUES, VOL. 26, 1988, NO. 4

 The combined free surface boundary condition (CFSBC)

0y-( — ] 0 = 0 at y = h (3)

The kinematic boundary condition (KBC) on wavemaker

0n = coS sin 0 cos (cot) at x = (y~ d') tan 0 (4)
and the radiation condition, i.e., the disturbed surface takes the form of outgoing progressive
waves at a large distance from the plunger. The leakage underneath the wedge was assumed to be
zero. Therefore equation (4) indeed includes two equations, one is the KBC on the inclined
surface of wedge
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0n = coS sin 0 cos (cot) at d'<y<h (4a)

the other is the KBC on the clearance between channel bottom and the wedge bottom
0 X = O at 0<y<d' (4b)
but equation (4a) can cover equation (4b) by setting 0 = 0.
The x-y coordinates are defined on Fig. 1. In the following equations i = y—1, co is the circular
frequency defined as 2njT, T is the wave period, S is the stroke amplitude, d' is the mean
clearance from the channel bottom to the wedge bottom, 0 is wedge angle as shown in Fig. 1, k is
the wave number and n is the direction of the unit normal to the inclined surface of the wedge.
Transferring the equation of KBC on wavemaker to the x-y coordinates system yields
0X - 0y tan 0 = coS tan 0 cos (cot) at x = (y- d') tan 0 (5)
Equations (1), (2), (3), (5) mathematically govern the boundary value problem of waves generated
by a plunger-type wavemaker. Since the wedge oscillates periodically, the velocity potential
<P(x,y, t) can be expressed in a separable form
<P(x,y, t) = real [</>(x,y) exp (— icot)]
= <j>(x,y) cos (cot) (6)
Substituting equation (6) into equations (1), (2), (3), (5) and for convenience the complex form
will be used at the following operations yields
LE:

<t>xx + <t>yy = 0 (7)

BBC:

4> = 0 at y = 0 (8)
CFSBC:

:0 at y = h (9)
g
KBC on wavemaker:
0X - <py tan 0 = coS tan 0 at x = (y - d') tan 0 (10)
A potential function <j> satisfying equation (7) and the associated boundary conditions can not be

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC RESEARCH, VOL. 26, 1988, NO. 4 485

 solved analytically. In the following section a semi-analytical method will be introduced and
used to solve for the potential function <f>.

3 Solution by the boundary collocation method

By using the method of separation variables, it is found that one solution of equation (7) that
satisfies equations (8), (9) and the radiation condition is given by

4> = AÜ cosh (kuy)e'^ + f An cos (kny)e-^ (11)

n=l
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under the constrains of

co2 = gk0 tanh (k0h) (12)
2
to = — gkn tan (knh) «=l,2,...,oc (13)
Equation (11) represents the potential function of one progressive wave propagating in the
positive direction and a number of standing waves which decay expotentially with distance away
from the wavemaker on a uniform depth channel. Equations (12) and (13) are the dispersion
relations of progressive wave and standing waves respectively. k0 is the wave number of the
progressive wave and kn are the wave numbers of standing waves. A0 and An are unknown coeffi­
cients which must be determined by using equation (10), the KBC on wavemaker. Substituting
equation (11) into equation (10) yields

iA0k0 cosh (koy)e'^-d')lan0 - X Ankn cos {kny)e-"° (y-d') tan 0

0=1

A0k0 sinh (*o>>)eik°(>'-d')'an'- f > n * D sin ( k ^ e ^ ^

n=l

• tan 6 = OJS tan 6 (14)

where 0 is zero on 0 <y < d'.
An approximation method, the boundary collocation method, will be introduced to determine
coefficients A0 and A„ of the above equations.
The BCM (Eason [3]) is based on a linear combination of functions that are solutions of the
governing equation of the problem, the unknown coefficients of the combination are found from
a least square matching of the remaining boundary conditions at discrete points, i.e., by making
minimum the sum of quadratic residuals. The BCM defined in this research can be seen as a
semi-analytical method, since the proposed functions. Equation (11), not only identically
satisfies the LE but also identically satisfies the three boundary conditions, BBC, CFSBC and the
radiation condition and will be required to satisfy the remaining KBC on wavemaker, equation
(14), approximately.
To estimate A0 and A„, the inclined surface of the wedge and the clearance are divided into M — 1
segments. Each segment has the same vertical length and has two node points at two ends,
therefore there will be M node points on the left hand boundary. Equation (14) is required to
satisfy at all the M node points, therefore

LAnnjMxN • L A J N X I = LAnJMxl (15)

486 JOURNAL DE RECHERCHES HYDRAULIQUES, VOL. 26, 1988. NO. 4

 where []i x J means a matrix with / rows and / columns, and

y\ y-d'
B„ knh i cosh knh tan 8 sinh kah -\ ■exp ik0h tan 6
him.

Bmn = -kn^h cos K-ih tan 8 sin

' "<*).

y-d1
•exp K-\h tan 8 n+\
A0
A\
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coSh

An-\
A'
toS h
n+\
Dm = tan 8

Equation (15) will be solved in the least square sense, to minimize the sum of quadratic error,
therefore

[BY-[B]-[A'] = [BY-[D] (16)

where [B]T is the Hermitian transpose of matrix [B]. To get an approximate solution of equation
(16), a finite number of TV must be used. Therefore one progressive wave and fifteen standing
waves, N = 16, are included in the computations of this paper. Since standing waves will decay
expotentially with distance away from the wavemaker, there will be only progressive wave exist
at far field and the potential function is

0 = real [A0 cosh (k0y) exp {i(k0x — col))] (17)

From the Bernoulli equation, the linear wave profile can be expressed as

= real [a exp (l(kQx - cot))] (18)

y=h

where a is the wave amplitude and

a = Abs cosh (k0h)

Therefore, the ratio of wave amplitude and stroke amplitude is

a
■ Abs[—iA\knh sinh (k0h)] (20)

This equation shows that the water depth is important when the wave height produced by an
oscillating wedge is estimated, unfortunately which has never been included in the analysis of
plunger-type wavemaker theory.

4 Results and comparison

In this section the numerical results computed by using the BCM for different water depths will

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC RESEARCH, VOL. 26, 1988, NO. 4 487

 be presented. How sensitivity are the numerical results to the number of node points M is
presented in Fig. 2. It is believed that M = 200 is a good choice to get accurate results. These
results will be compared to the results obtained by using the conformal transformation method
and also to the experiment results.
At first, the ratios of wave amplitude and stroke amplitude for different water depths are shown
in Fig. 3. These results are based on d = 0.3 m, b = 0.2 m, and water depths are 0.3 m, 0.5 m,
1.0 m, and 2.0 m respectively. It is found that the water depth is important and must be included in
the plunger-type wavemaker analysis. This condition is not special for plunger-type wavemaker,
but appears in other wavemaker theory (Ursell, Dean and Yu [12]).
The comparison of Wang's conformal transformation method and the BCM are shown in Fig. 4
and Fig. 5. From the data of Wang's experiment, we find that the ratios are related to the water
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1.2
h = 1.0 m
d =0.5 m

/
^^s
y ^
_ ^ = ^
d/b=1.S

d/b= 2.0

0.6 - M = 40C
M= 200
/ M= 1 00
M = 50

2.0
KoD

Fig. 2. The sensitivity of the numerical results to the number of node points.

Lb
Fig. 3. Wave amplitude ratio for different water depths, d = 0.3 m, b = 0.2 m.
Amplitude relative de la houle pour différentes profondeurs d'eau, d = 0,3 m, b -■0,2 m.

488 JOURNAL DE RECHERCHES HYDRAULIQUES, VOL. 26, 1988, NO. 4

Downloaded by [USC University of Southern California] at 09:56 26 February 2015

Wangfdeep wa er)
- BCM(h = 36" d = 18")
BCM(h = 30" d = 12")

kob

Fig. 4. Comparison of theory and experiment djb = 2.\S.

Comparaison theorie et experience djb = 2,18.

1.5

deep ^ / ^

1.0 -

a
S o d = 12"
. d= 18"

0.5 Wang(deep water)

BCM(h=36", d=l8")
BCM(h = 30", d=l2")

kob

Fig. 5. Comparison of theory and experiment djb = 1.38.

Comparaison theorie et experience djb = 1,38.

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC RESEARCH, VOL. 26, 1988, NO. 4

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Fig. 6. Comparison of theory and experiment djb = 1.60, d = 0.3 m, h = 0.5 m.

Comparaison theorie et experience djb = 1,60, d = 0,3 m, h = 0,5 m.

depth; this property is more obvious for deep water, (large k0b). The BCM can identify this
property but Wang's theory cannot. The comparison is shown in Fig. 6 again, where the data were
taken from Ellix and Arumugam's recently experiment study of waves generated by an oscillating
wedge. It is shown that the computational results by the BCM are in reasonable agreement with
the measured data and are more accurate than Wang's method, in the shallow water (small k0b).
Some disagreement between the numerical solutions and the laboratory measured data may
result of energy dissipation, energy leakage around the sides of the wave generator and the
approximate nature of the BCM.

5 Conclusion
A semi-analytical method, BCM, has been applied to analyze plunger-type wavemaker theory.
This method considers the effect of water depth, which has not been done by other methods
before. The importance of the water depth was proved and showed. The BCM is simple and
theoretically more reasonable than the Wang's conformal transformation method for finite water
depth. Also it is found thatlhe BCM is reasonably accurate when compared with laboratory data.
The BCM presented here was applied to a triangular cross-section of wedge, but the method can
be used to analyze any cross-section of wedge with the same simple process.

Notations
a wave amplitude
A0 complex amplitude of progressive wave
An complex amplitude of standing waves
A'n coefficients related to the complex amplitudes
b breadth of generator at still water level
B elements of matrix [B] defined in the text
d mean submergence of generator
d' clearance between channel bottom and wedge bottom
D coefficients defined in the text
g gravity acceleration

490 JOURNAL DE RECHERCHES HYDRAULIQUES, VOL. 26, 1988, NO. 4

 h water depth
k0 wave number of progressive wave
kn wave number of standing waves
« unit normal vector
5 Stroke amplitude
t time
T wave period
x, y Cartesian coordinates
r\ surface elevation
6 the inclination of inclined surface of the wedge
<j>, 0 velocity potential function
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co wave frequency (rad/s)

References / Bibliographie

1. BIÉSEL and SUQUET, Etude Théorique d'un certain Type d'Appareil a Houle, La Houille Blanche, Vol. 6,
1951.
2. BUHR, HANSEN and SVENDSEN, Laboratory Generation of Waves of Constant Form, Proc. 14th Conf. on
Coastal Eng., ASCE, 1974.
3. EASON and MOTE, Solution of Nonlinear Differential Equations by Discrete Least Squares, Int. J.
Numer, Methods in Eng., Vol. 10, 1978.
4. ELLEX and ARUMUGAM, An Experimental Study of Waves Generated by an Oscillating Wedge, J. Hyd.
Res., Vol. 22, 1984.
5. FLICK and GUZA, Paddle Generated Waves in Laboratory Channels, J. Waterways and Harbors Eng.,
ASCE, Vol. 106, wwl, 1980.
6. FONTANET, Theorie de la Generation de la Houle Cylindrique par un Batteur Plan, La Houille Blanche,
Vol. 16, No. 1, 1961.
7. HAVELOCK, Forced Surface Waves on Water, Phil. Mag., Series 7, 1929.
8. HYUN, Theory for Hinged Wavemakers of Finite Draft in Water of Constant Depth, J. Hydronantics,
Vol. 10, No. 1, 1976.
9. MADSEN, Waves Generated by a Piston Type Wavemaker, Proc. 12th Conf. on Coastal Eng., ASCE, 1970.
10. MADSEN, On the Generation of Long Waves, J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 36, 1971.
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JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC RESEARCH, VOL. 26, 1988, NO. 4 491