On steady and unsteady ship wave patterns

Abstract

The properties of steady and unsteady ship waves propagating on a free surface discretized with panels are studied. The wave propagation is characterized by an explicit discrete dispersion relation which allows the systematic analysis of the distortion of the wave pattern due to discretization and the derivation of a stability criterion to be met by the numerical algorithm. The conclusions of the study are applied to a panel method used for the computation of steady and time-harmonic free-surface flows past elementary singularities and a ship hull.