The scattering of water waves by an array of circular cylinders in a channel (Q1369390)

The multipole method is used to solve the full linear problem of scattering of an incident plane wave in a channel by an arbitrary array of bottom-mounted vertical circular cylinders. A simple formula is derived for the velocity potential in the vicinity of a cylinder and on the cylinder surfaces, which allows to evaluate easily hydrodynamic forces. Using matched asymptotic expansions, the authors derive an approximate solution to the problem, based on the assumption that the wavelength of the incident wave is long compared with the cylinder radii. This leads to a simple method for calculating the first-order forces on the cylinders, which is accurate when the nondimensional wavenumber is less than 0,5. This approximation can be useful by checking the results computed by other methods.