Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2006
Numerical solutions are presented for the unsteady irrotational flow generated by the movement of the stern of a two-dimensional semi-infinite body at the free surface of an incompressible fluid. When separation occurs other than at a sharp trailing edge, the location of the separation point is computed as part of the solution. Linear and nonlinear results are compared. It is shown that for draught-based Froude numbers greater than 3 the nonlinear effects are negligible for most practical purposes while for Froude numbers less than three these effects can be significant.