Dispersion Relation for a Free Surface

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Introduction

The dispersion equation for a free surface is one of the most important equations in linear water wave theory. It arises when separating variables subject to the boundary conditions for a free surface.

The same equation arises when separating variables in two or three dimensions and we present here the two-dimensional version. We denote the vertical coordinate by $z\,,$ which points vertically upwards, and the free surface is at $z=0\,.$

We also assume that Frequency Domain Problem with frequency $\omega$ and we assume that all variables are proportional to $\exp(-\mathrm{i}\omega t)\,$

The water motion is represented by a velocity potential which is denoted by $\phi\,$ so that

$\Phi(\mathbf{x},t) = \mathrm{Re} \left\{\phi(\mathbf{x},\omega)e^{-\mathrm{i} \omega t}\right\}.$

The equations therefore become

$\begin{align} \Delta\phi &=0, &-h<z<0,\,\,\mathbf{x} \in \Omega \\ \partial_z\phi &= 0, &z=-h, \\ \partial_z \phi &= \alpha \phi, &z=0,\,\,\mathbf{x} \in \partial \Omega_{\mathrm{F}}, \end{align}$

(note that the last expression can be obtained from combining the expressions:

$\begin{align} \partial_z \phi &= -\mathrm{i} \omega \zeta, &z=0,\,\,\mathbf{x} \in \partial \Omega_{\mathrm{F}}, \\ \mathrm{i} \omega \phi &= g\zeta, &z=0,\,\,\mathbf{x} \in \partial \Omega_{\mathrm{F}}, \end{align}$

where $\alpha = \omega^2/g \,$)

We use separation of variables We express the potential as

$\phi(x,z) = X(x)Z(z)\,$

and then Laplace's equation becomes

$\frac{X^{\prime\prime}}{X} = - \frac{Z^{\prime\prime}}{Z} = k^2$

Separation of variables for a free surface

We use separation of variables

We express the potential as

$\phi(x,z) = X(x)Z(z)\,$

and then Laplace's equation becomes

$\frac{X^{\prime\prime}}{X} = - \frac{Z^{\prime\prime}}{Z} = k^2$

The separation of variables equation for deriving free surface eigenfunctions is as follows:

$Z^{\prime\prime} + k^2 Z =0.$

subject to the boundary conditions

$Z^{\prime}(-h) = 0$

and

$Z^{\prime}(0) = \alpha Z(0)$

We can then use the boundary condition at $z=-h \,$ to write

$Z = \frac{\cos k(z+h)}{\cos kh}$

where we have chosen the value of the coefficent so we have unit value at $z=0$. The boundary condition at the free surface ($z=0 \,$) gives rise to:

$k\tan\left( kh\right) =-\alpha \,$

which is the Dispersion Relation for a Free Surface

The above equation is not really the dispersion relation for a free surface, it would be better to refer to it as a transcendental equation. If we solve for all roots in the complex plane we find that the first root is a pair of imaginary roots. We denote the imaginary solutions of this equation by $k_{0}=\pm ik \,$ and the positive real solutions by $k_{m} \,$, $m\geq1$. The $k \,$ of the imaginary solution is the wavenumber. We put the imaginary roots back into the equation above and use the hyperbolic relations

$\cos ix = \cosh x, \quad \sin ix = i\sinh x,$

to arrive at the dispersion relation

$\alpha = k\tanh kh.$

We note that for a specified frequency $\omega \,$ the equation determines the wavenumber $k \,$.

Finally we define the function $Z(z) \,$ as

$\chi_{m}\left( z\right) =\frac{\cos k_{m}(z+h)}{\cos k_{m}h},\quad m\geq0$

as the vertical eigenfunction of the potential in the open water region. From Sturm-Liouville theory the vertical eigenfunctions are orthogonal. They can be normalised to be orthonormal, but this has no advantages for a numerical implementation. It can be shown that

$\int\nolimits_{-h}^{0}\chi_{m}(z)\chi_{n}(z) \mathrm{d} z=A_{n}\delta_{mn}$

where

$A_{n}=\frac{1}{2}\left( \frac{\cos k_{n}h\sin k_{n}h+k_{n}h}{k_{n}\cos ^{2}k_{n}h}\right).$

See Also

• Dispersion (water waves)

Matlab Code

A program to calculate solutions to the dispersion relation for a free surface dispersion_free_surface.m