Free-surface breaking dynamics and morphology of waves generated by the semi-submerged wedge-shaped body

Abstract

The breaking waves at the bow and stern represent a fundamental free-surface phenomenon involving violent interface deformation, air entrainment, and strong two-phase coupling. The temporal evolution and spatial distribution of wave breaking are fundamental to understanding water-air mixing flows around ships. The present study adopts the square stern of high-speed ships as a reference and selects a wedge model as the research object in order to investigate the characteristics of interface breaking and the flow morphology. The free-surface waves around the wedge model were measured using a binocular vision system. A systematic analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of various parameters on the flow patterns in the bow and stern regions. The parameters investigated included draft depth (D), stern width (B), attack angle (α), and draft Froude number FrD=U/gD. The results show that the wave profiles have strong similarity when FrD is chosen as the dominant parameter. The associated parameters of FrD and geometric parameters are found to have a significant influence on the morphological characteristics of the waves.