Slender body expansions in potential theory along a finite straight line (Q707982)

Slender body theory for potential flow satisfying the Laplace equation has applications in many important fields, in particular, in hydrodynamics applied to ships, submarines and missile dynamics. There is a renewed interest in the slender body potential theory as a part of Oseen flow slender body theory, within which it satisfies the boundary conditions. An important aspect of these theories is the fact that the strength of the slender body distributions can change sharply at the ends. In ship and submarine design, the rear ends abruptly, and in missile design the rear is often truncated. This means a sharp change in the source distribution strength at the rear. There are two main slender body approaches, but neither is ideal for modeling these problems. One is the Fourier transform approach, which transforms the three-dimensional source distribution integral over an infinite length into Fourier space, and in doing so an expansion can be found which separates the variable along the body length from the variables in the cross-section. An advantage of this approach is that the terms in the expansion are of decreasing order of the slenderness parameter, so the expansion can be truncated to any specified order of accuracy. However, the major disadvantage with using this approach is that the distribution is over an infinite length and is assumed to vary slowly. This means that the sharp change in the distribution strength at the ends is not captured, causing inaccuracies in the results. This can be overcome by using instead the integral splitting technique described by Tuck who gives credit to Ursell. This technique considers rather a finite than infinite length integral. However, the major disadvantage with using this approach, as it currently stands, is that only a few terms have ever been found in the slender body expansion. \textit{R. A. Handelsman} and \textit{J. B. Keller} [J. Fluid Mech. 28, 131--147 (1967; Zbl 0148.20703)] overcome this by letting the potential be a function of the slenderness parameter and then expanding it in this parameter. They obtained a complete uniform asymptotic expansion, but the final expression contains triple summations with further operator summations embedded within them. So, the practicality of using this method in a numerical code is limited. Ideally, what is required is an expansion over a finite length slender body which is similar to that given over an infinite length by the Fourier transform method. The aim of the present paper is to achieve this. The authors apply the integral splitting technique of Tuck and Ursell, but use some of the mathematical techniques given by Handelsman and Keller, in particular, the complete Taylor series expansions of the strength function. Furthermore, the authors assume a finite length distribution of potential singularities of the type \(\ln(R -x_i)\), where \((x_1,x_2,x_3)\) are Cartesian coordinates with \(x_1\) in the axial direction, and \(R =\sqrt{x_1^2 + x_2^2 + x_3^2}\) is the radial distance. This is in contrast to the usual approach of applying it to the potential source singularity \(1/R\). The advantage of starting with the generator potential is immediately clear if we examine the near-field approximation for \(r = \sqrt{x_2^2 + x_3^2}\to 0\), \(x_1 > 0\). Then \(R- x_1\sim r^2/2x_1\), and \(\ln(R - x_1)\sim 2\ln r- \ln 2x_1\), giving directly a separation into axial and transverse plane variables. This means that the extra complication of an integration by parts performed for every term in the expansion is now not necessary. This requirement, when the potential source singularity is used, makes the integral splitting technique intractable for obtaining successive terms in the slender body approximation. The increased ease of obtaining a separation of variables means that now it is feasible to find all the terms, instead of the first few, in the slender body expansion. Note, that the logarithmic expansion was considered by \textit{M. J. Ward, W. D. Henshaw} and \textit{J. B. Keller} [SIAM J. Appl. Math. 53, No. 3, 799--828 (1993; Zbl 0778.35082)], but this paper examines the Helmholtz equation (or eigenvalues of the Laplace equation) which reduces expansions in Bessel functions, and so is a different problem and is not applicable here. The outcome is an expansion very similar to the one given by using the Fourier transform method, apart from the inclusion of extra terms which account for the finite-length body. The expansion is checked for the particular infinite length case by taking the ends to infinity. The expansion from the Fourier transform method is then recovered. Hence, this new work also shows that the two slender body methods (Fourier transform and integral splitting) are equivalent, and extends the slender body expansion formula to the case of a finite rather than infinite length body. The resulting numerical scheme is discussed, in particular, the authors give an evaluation close to the ends and also compare the presented slender body theory and existing numerical methods.