Numerical Studies of Wave Breaking Compared to Experimental Observations

We report our current investigation aimed to understand the fluid dynamics involved in bow- and stern-wave radiation, including wave breaking. The analysis is limited to practical slender ships, with a sharp stem, for which basic insight can be achieved by exploiting the idea that longitudinal gradients of relevant flow quantities are small compared with vertical and transverse gradients. On this ground, the steady inviscid three-dimensional problem can be simplified and shown to be mathematically equivalent to the unsteady two-dimensional free-surface flow in the plane vertical and transverse to the ship, as generated by a deformable body, the cross section of the passing through ship. Consistently, we call this approximation 2D+t model.