THE INITIAL DEVELOPMENT OF A JET CAUSED BY FLUID, BODY AND FREE-SURFACE INTERACTION .1. A UNIFORMLY ACCELERATING PLATE

The flow field induced by a vertical plate accelerating into a stationary fluid of finite depth with a free surface and a gravitational restoring force is investigated. This is a model problem for some technologically important design issues such as the bow splash of a ship moving at forward speed. Experimentally it is found that a thin jet forms on the plate and rises rapidly upwards. We investigate this jet in the small-time approximation and find an analytical solution for the flow field in which the jet emerges out of a thin region where the horizontal momentum of the main flow is converted by inertial effects into a rising jet.