An analytical solution for wave transformation over axi-symmetric topography

Abstract

The present study considers wave scattering phenomena around a cylindrical island mounted on a general axi-symmetric topography or a general submerged truncated axi-symmetric shoal based on the mild-slope equation. The method of separation of variables and Taylor series expansion are invoked to find the approximate solution to the variable water depth region which varies proportionally to an arbitrary power of radial distance. Validations against the solutions for the combined wave refraction and diffraction around a cylindrical island mounted on a paraboloidal shoal of Liu et al. in 2004 and the scattering and trapping of wave energy by a submerged truncated paraboloidal shoal of Lin and Liu in 2007 show excellent agreements as the power of radial distance being equal to two. For the solutions of wave refraction and diffraction around a cylindrical island mounted on a shoal with depth proportionally to an arbitrary power of radial distance, good agreements with Zhai et al.’s (2013) solutions are demonstrated. Since the robustness of the assumption of a general axi-symmetric geometry based on an arbitrary power variability of the radial distance, the present solution can be very conveniently employed to investigate the effects of bottom topography on wave scattering and trapping patterns.