An alternative method to study wave scattering by semi-infinite inertial surfaces

A new method to solve the boundary value problem arising in the study of scattering of two-dimensional surface water waves by a discontinuity in the surface boundary conditions is presented in this paper. The discontinuity arises due to the floating of two semi-infinite inertial surfaces of different surface densities. Applying Green's second identity to the potential functions and appropriate Green's functions, this problem is reduced to solving two coupled Fredholm integral equations with regular kernels. The solutions to these integral equations are used to determine the reflection and the transmission coefficients. The results for the reflection coefficient are presented graphically and are compared to those obtained earlier using other research methods. It is observed from the graphs that the results computed from the present analysis match exactly with the previous results. © 2013 Harbin Engineering University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.