The entry of a wedge into an incompressible fluid (Q2641150)

The similarity problem of the entry of a rigid wedge into an ideal weightless incompressible fluid occupying a half-space is studied. The difficulty is that a nonlinear boundary condition has to be satisfied on the free surface of the fluid, whose position is unknown and has to be found during the solution. Three types of fluid motion are considered: flow past the wedge without break-away, the case when one wedge face is not wetted (a semi-infinite plate), and the intermediate case, when a cavity forms on one face. The problem amounts to solving a nonlinear system of integral equations. A method of solving this system is given for the flow without break-away and the plate case. Examples of calculations are given. The results for thin and thick wedges are compared with approximate data.