Plane potential flow past a circular cylinder beneath a free surface under gravity is investigated in order to determine the importance or otherwise of non-linear effects from the free-surface boundary condition. It is shown that non-linear second-order corrections to the first-order linearized expressions for the wave-induced forces on the cylinder are considerably larger than second-order effects which are present even with a linear free-surface condition. Further evidence for the importance of non-linearity is presented in the form of streamline plots of the first-order solution showing strange behaviour at wave crests.

A two-dimensional jet or wake is observed in a frame of reference moving with the fluid at infinity, so that the velocity w(y) in the x-direction tends to zero as y → ± ∞. The fluid is assumed to be an inviscid perfect gas, to undergo-adiabatic changes, and the local speed of sound to be a function of y such that a(y)→ a∞, as y → ±∞. If the disturbance pressure has the form