Laboratory Generated Waves and Wave Theories

Tests are carried out in a wave tank to record the waves, the water pressures, and the horizontal and vertical water particle velocities. The water depth is such that the waves generated during the test cover the deep, intermediate and shallow water ranges. In the intermediate and shallow water range the soliton effects are observed. In deep water, the Airy wave theory is found to describe the water particle kinematics adequately. Stokes' 3rd order wave theory is found to be valid for higher waves in intermediate water depths. Stream function theory is found to agree reasonably with the test data in general. Based on these comparisons, a region of validity of various wave theories is described and compared with other predicted regions in the literature.