AN INTEGRAL EQUATION DESCRIBING RIDING WAVES IN SHALLOW WATER OF FINITE DEPTH

An integral equation describing riding waves, i. e. , small-scaleperturbation waves superposed on unperturbed surface waves, in shallow water of finite depth wasstudied via explicit Hamiltonian formulation, and the water was regarded as ideal incompressiblefluid of uniform density. The kinetic energy, density of the perturbed fluid motion was formulatedwith Hamiltonian canonical variables, elevation of the free surface and the velocity potential atthe free surface. Then the variables were expanded to the first order at the free surface ofunperturbed waves. An integal equation for velocity potential of perturbed waves on the unperturbedfree surface was derived by conformal mapping and the Fourier transformation. The integral equationcould replace the Hamiltonian canonical equations which are difficult to solve. An explicitexpression of Lagrangian density function could be obtained by solving the integral equation. Themethod used in this paper provides a new path to study the Hamiltonian formulation of riding wavesand wave interaction problems.