A finite-element series-expansion technique for linear surface water waves (Q1060906)

A numerical method is presented to deal with the propagation of surface water waves in the framework of the linear theory for an inviscid fluid. For particular geometrical configurations of the region in which wave propagation occurs, refraction, diffraction and reflection phenomena can arise simultaneously, so that the solution of the original Berkhoff equation [\textit{J. C. W. Berkhoff}, Proc. 13th coastal eng. conf., Vancouver, ASCE 1, 471-490 (1972)] with appropriate boundary conditions becomes essential to achieve an adequate picture of the resulting field. The method is based on a finite element scheme, in which the element matrices are computed by a series expansion technique.