Use of Galerkin Technique in Some Water Wave Scattering Problems Involving Plane Vertical Barriers

TL;DR: In this article, the Galerkin method with simple polynomials multiplied by appropriate weights was used to solve the problem of water wave scattering in a single thin plane vertical barrier partially immersed or completely submerged in water.

Abstract: The explicit solutions exist for normal incidence of the surface wave train or a single thin plane vertical barrier partially immersed or completely submerged in deep water. However, for oblique incidence of the wave train and/or for finite depth water, no such explicit solution is possible to obtain. Some approximate mathematical techniques are generally employed to solve them approximately in the sense that quantities of physical interest associated with each problem, namely the reflection and transmission coefficients, can be obtained approximately either analytically or numerically. The method of Galerkin approximations has been widely used to investigate such water wave scattering problems involving thin vertical barriers. Use of Galerkin method with basis functions involving somewhat complicated functions in solving these problems has been carried out in the literature. Choice of basis functions as simple polynomials multiplied by appropriate weights dictated by the edge conditions at the submerged end points of the barrier providing fairly good numerical estimates for the reflection and transmission coefficients have been demonstrated in this article.