Small amplitude capillary-gravity waves in a channel of finite depth

Introductory Remarks. Recently a number of studies (Chen & Saffman [2], Jones & Toland [7,11], Hogan [5]) have been made of periodic capillary-gravity waves which form the free surface of an ideal fluid contained in a channel of infinite depth. However, little work appears to have been done on the corresponding problem when the depth is finite. The most significant contributions appear to be those of Reeder & Shinbrot [9], Barakat & Houston [1] and Nayfeh [8] all of whom confined themselves to Wilton ripples (see §1.3). Yet there are sound reasons why such a study should be made. For quite apart from the unsolved problem regarding the type of capillary-gravity waves which may occur at finite depths, the consideration of the finite depth problem may be regarded as a first step in the study of solitary capillary-gravity waves. In this paper, a new integral equation for the infinite depth problem, due to J. F. Toland and the author, is adapted to be of use in tackling the finite depth problem. Using this we obtain results for the exact equations of motion which answer rigorously the questions of existence and multiplicity of small amplitude solutions of the periodic capillary-gravity wave problem of finite depth.