Water-wave scattering by submerged elastic plates

Abstract

We present a solution to the water-wave interaction with a submerged elastic plate of negligible thickness by the eigenfunction-matching method. The eigenfunction expansion depends on the solution of a special dispersion equation for a submerged elastic plate and this is discussed in detail. We show how the solution can be calculated for the case of normal incidence on a semi-infinite plate in two spatial dimensions and then extend this solution to obliquely incident waves, to a plate of finite length and to a circular finite plate in three dimensions. Numerical calculations showing various properties of the solutions are presented and a near-orthogonality relation for the eigenfunctions is used to derive an energy-balance relation. © The author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.