Theoretical considerations on the penetration of a wedge into the water

Abstract

This theoretical treatment is an extension of H. Wagner’s ‘expanding plate theory’. Though the mathematical procedure would apparently be applicable to wedges of any deadrise angle, the purpose is only the study of the flow about surface piercing wedges with high deadrise angles, similar to foreship sections of some trawlers. The pilling-up of water is calculated and the distribution of hydrodynamic pressure determined for two-dimensional wedges penetrating into the water at high downward velocity. By means of these theoretical considerations an attempt is made to explain the occurrence of shocks, to which trawlers with highly flared forebody are submitted in severe sea states.