Trapped modes about multiple cylinders in a channel


D. V. Evans and R. Porter, 1997, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 339, 331--356.


The trapped modes which can occur in a long narrow wave channel containing any number of different-sized bottom-mounted circular cylinders arbitrarily-spaced along the centreline of the channel are considered. The modes, all of which are antisymmetric with respect to the centre plane of the channel are of two types; Neumann modes, in which the fluid has normal velocity zero on the channel walls corresponding to a localised sloshing near the cylinders, and Dirichlet modes, in which the dynamic pressure vanishes on the channel walls. These latter modes have no physical meaning in the water-wave context but have been observed in a related acoustic context where the same governing equations and boundary conditions apply. It is shown that in general there are <= N trapped modes for any configuration of N cylinders, the precise number depending critically on the geometry of the configuration. Both types are of importance in predicting the exciting forces on individual cylinders within a large but finite periodic arrangement of cylinders.

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