The problem of irrotational inviscid incompressible free-surface flow is examined in the limit of small Froude number. Since this is a singular perturbation, singularities in the flow field (or its analytic continuation) such as stagnation points, or corners in submerged objects or on rough beds, lead to a divergent asymptotic expansion, with associated Stokes lines. Recent techniques in exponential asymptotics are employed to observe the switching on of exponentially small gravity waves across these Stokes lines.As a concrete example, the flow over a step is considered. It is found that there are three possible parameter regimes, depending on whether the dimensionless step height is small, of the same order, or large compared to the square of the Froude number. Asymptotic results are derived in each case, and compared with numerical simulations of the full nonlinear problem. The agreement is remarkably good, even at relatively large Froude number. This is in contrast to the alternative analytical theory of small step height, which is accurate only for very small steps.

Two-dimensional free-surface flows due to a pressure distribution moving at a constant velocity U at the surface of a fluid of infinite depth are considered. Both gravity g and surface tension T are included in the dynamic boundary condition. The velocity U is assumed to be smaller than (4gT/ρ)¼, so that there are no waves in the far field. Here ρ is the density of the fluid. The problem is solved numerically by a boundary integral equation technique. It is shown that for some values of U, four different flows are possible. Three of these flows are interpreted as perturbations of solitary waves in water of infinite depth. It is found that both elevation and depression solitary waves are possible in water of infinite depth. The numerical results for depression waves confirm and extend the solutions previously computed by Longuet-Higgins (1989).

In this paper, the unsteady evolution of two-dimensional fully nonlinear free-surface gravity–capillary solitary waves is computed numerically in infinite depth. Gravity–capillary wavepacket-type solitary waves were found previously for the full Euler equations, bifurcating from the minimum of the linear dispersion relation. Small and moderate amplitude elevation solitary waves, which were known to be linearly unstable, are shown to evolve into stable depression solitary waves, together with a radiated wave field. Depression waves and certain large amplitude elevation waves were found to be robust to numerical perturbations. Two kinds of collisions are computed: head-on collisions whereby the waves are almost unchanged, and overtaking collisions which are either almost elastic if the wave amplitudes are both large or destroy the smaller wave in the case of a small amplitude wave overtaking a large one.

A numerical method is presented for the computation of two-dimensional periodic progressive surface waves propagating under the combined influence of gravity and surface tension. The dynamic boundary equation is used in its exact nonlinear form. The procedure involves a boundary-integral formulation coupled with a Newtonian iteration. Solutions of high accuracy can be achieved over much of the range of wavelengths and heights including limiting waves. A number of different continuous families of solutions have been produced, all of which ultimately exhibit closed bubbles at their troughs. The so-called critical wavelengths are less important than have been previously assumed; the number of possible wave forms does increase with increasing wavelength, however.