Wave Energy and Wave Propagation

• Published in: Fundamentals of Ship Hydrodynamics p. 1
• Main Author: Birk Lothar
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons 2019; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
• Subjects: energy transport; kinetic wave energy; Marine Engineering & Naval Architecture; potential wave energy; Ships & Vessels; wave particle velocity; wave propagation
• ISBN: 1118855485; 9781118855485
• DOI: 10.1002/9781119191575.ch24

This chapter defines the energy contained in a regular wave and explains how the wave and its energy propagate. It distinguishes between the kinematic energy and potential energy of waves. Both forms of energy are computed and it is assumed that the wave is regular and its wave steepness is small enough to apply linear wave theory. The total energy density is equal to the sum of kinetic and potential wave energy density. The chapter shows the distribution of wave energy density for a wave over one period. Kinetic energy density is constant across a wave cycle because the amplitude of the wave particle velocity is only varying with submergence. Waves transport energy in the direction of wave propagation. However, since mass transport does not exist in linear waves due to the closed particle paths, only the potential wave energy portion is transported by the wave. The chapter determines how fast wave energy propagates.