Eigenfunction Matching for a Semi-Infinite Floating Elastic Plate
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Introduction
We show here a solution for a semi-infinite Floating Elastic Plate on Finite Depth. The problem was solved by Fox and Squire 1994 but the solution method here is slightly different. The simpler theory for a Dock describes many of the ideas here in more detail.
Equations
We consider the problem of small-amplitude waves which are incident on a semi-infinite floating elastic plate occupying water surface for x > 0. The submergence of the plate is considered negligible. We assume that the problem is invariant in the y direction, although we allow the waves to be incident from an angle. We also assume that the plate edges are free to move at each boundary, although other boundary conditions could easily be considered using the methods of solution presented here. We begin with the Frequency Domain Problem for a semi-infinite Floating Elastic Plates in the non-dimensional form of Tayler 1986 (Dispersion Relation for a Floating Elastic Plate). We also assume that the waves are normally incident (incidence at an angle will be discussed later).




where α = ω2, β and γ are the stiffness and mass constant for the plate respectively. The free edge conditions at the edge of the plate imply


Method of solution
We use separation of variables in the two regions, x < 0 and x > 0.
We express the potential as
and then Laplace's equation becomes
Separation of variables for a free surface
We use separation of variables
We express the potential as
and then Laplace's equation becomes
The separation of variables equation for deriving free surface eigenfunctions is as follows:
subject to the boundary conditions
and
We can then use the boundary condition at
to write
where we have chosen the value of the coefficent so we have unit value at z = 0.
The boundary condition at the free surface (
) gives rise to:

which is the Dispersion Relation for a Free Surface
We denote the
negative imaginary solution of this equation by
and
the positive real solutions by
,
. We define
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
where
Separation of variables under the Plate
subject to the boundary conditions
and
(the first term comes from the beam eigenvalue problem, where
). We then use the boundary condition at
to write
The boundary condition at the free surface (z = 0) is the Dispersion Relation for a Floating Elastic Plate

Solving for
gives a pure imaginary root
with positive imaginary part, two complex roots (two complex conjugate paired roots
with positive imaginary part in most physical situations), an infinite number of positive real roots
which approach
as n approaches infinity, and also the negative of all
these roots (Dispersion Relation for a Floating Elastic Plate) . We denote the two complex roots with positive imaginary part
by
and
, the purely imaginary
root with positive imaginary part by
and the real roots with positive imaginary part
by
for n a positive integer.
The imaginary root with positive imaginary part corresponds to a
reflected travelling mode propagating along the x axis.
The complex roots with positive imaginary parts correspond to damped reflected travelling modes and the real roots correspond to reflected evanescent modes.
Inner product between free surface and elastic plate modes
where

Incident potential
The incident potential is a wave of amplitude A in displacement travelling in the positive x-direction. The incident potential can therefore be written as
An infinite dimensional system of equations
The potential and its derivative must be continuous across the transition from open water to the plate covered region. Therefore, the potentials and their derivatives at x = 0 have to be equal. We also truncate the sum at N being careful that we have two extra modes on the plate covered region to satisfy the edge conditions. We obtain
and
for each N.
We solve these equations by multiplying both equations by
and integrating from − h to 0 to obtain:
and
If we multiply the first equation by kl and subtract the second equation we obtain
Finally, we need to apply the conditions at the edge of the plate to give us two further equations,
and
Numerical Solution
To solve the system of equations previously defined we set the upper limit of l to be N, as stated before. In terms of matrix, we obtain
We then simply need to solve the linear system of equations. Note that we can solve this equation for bn first and then solve for an
Waves Incident at an Angle
We can consider the case of Waves Incident at an Angle θ. When a wave in incident at an angle θ we have the wavenumber in the y direction is ky = sinθk0 where k0 is as defined previously (note that ky is imaginary).
This means that the potential is now of the form
so that when we separate variables we obtain
where k is the separation constant calculated without an incident angle.
It is shown that the potential can be expanded as
and
where
and
where we always take the positive real root or the root with positive imaginary part.
The edge conditions are also different and are

and

where ν is Poisons ratio.
We can expend these edge conditions, which respectively gives
and
The equations are derived almost identically to those above and we obtain
and
and these are solved exactly as before.
Energy Balance
We present a derivation of the energy balance here and also refer to the derivation Energy Balance for Two Elastic Plates
Based on the method used in Evans and Davies 1968, a check can be made to ensure the solutions energy balance. The energy balance equation is derived by applying Green's theorem to φ and its conjugate. The domain of integration is shown in the figure on the right. We assume that the angle is sufficiently small that we do not get total reflection.
Applying Green's theorem to φ and its conjugate φ * gives

where n denotes the outward plane normal to the boundary and l denotes the plane parallel to the boundary. As φ and φ * satisfy the Laplace's equation, the left hand side of the Green theorem equation vanishes so that it reduces to

The contributions from the vertical ends are


and


The contribution from the surface integral under the plate is


where we have integrated by parts and used the condition at the ends of the plate.
The energy balance is therefore

Note that this formula is only valid for angles
, where θ0
is defined by
. For large angles there is total reflection
and then | R | 2 = 1
Matlab Code
A program to calculate the coefficients for the semi-infinite dock problems can be found here semiinfinite_plate.m
Additional code
This program requires
. The rectangle
and 
