Propagation of water waves past long two-dimensional obstacles

Abstract

An approximate analysis is developed for the propagation of water waves past long obstacles by considering separately the effects of diffraction at each end. The motion is two-dimensional, and linearized potential flow is assumed. Reflexion and transmission coefficients are obtained for the long obstacle, and it is shown that for suitably chosen values of the obstacle length there is complete transmission due to interference between the two ends. A comparison is made with experiments for the case of a rectangular obstacle.