Steady free-surface flow at the stern of a ship

Abstract

New solutions for steady two-dimensional free-surface flow past a curved plate are considered here. They can be interpreted as approximations to the flow locally at the stern of a ship. Weakly nonlinear solutions are derived analytically and nonlinear solutions are computed by boundary integral equation methods. Analysis in the phase plane provides a way to determine the geometries of hulls that give rise to wave-free stern flows. These waveless flows are desirable as they reduce ship-drag.