INTEKACTION OF WAVES AND CURRENTS 



by 

 D. Howell Peregrine and Ivar G. Jonsson 



I. INTRODUCTION 



1. Engineering Practice and This Review . 



Accounting for the action of waves on structures, vessels, and 

 sediment is a typical task for coastal and ocean engineers; accounting 

 for the combined action of waves and currents is not. There are no 

 widely known design procedures to calculate the effect of wave-current 

 interactions . 



Engineering textbooks have almost nothing about wave-current 

 interaction; few even have such a basic and well-known feature as the 

 Doppler effect of a current on wave period. The fluid dynamics-applied 

 mathematics literature has more information (e.g., Whitham, 1974; 

 Phillips, 1977; LighthiU, 1978; and LeBlond and Mysak, 1978), but 

 examples which give direct guidance to the engineer are scarce. The 

 engineering and mathematical research literature has much more 

 information but, apart from the important series of papers by Longuet- 

 Higgins and Stewart (1960, 1961, 1962, 1964), most of the papers are too 

 recent to have affected engineering practice. 



In engineering practice, the importance of wave-current interaction 

 has often been poorly understood. In some cases, the fact that both the 

 waves and currents are simultaneously important is not recognized. In 

 other cases, where both waves and currents are understood to be 

 important at the same time, the importance of the interaction between 

 the waves and currents is not recognized. Even when both the waves and 

 the currents are known, their interaction may produce a significantly 

 different effect from that obtained by simply adding the effect of 

 the waves and the currents considered separately. This applies 

 particularly to the properties of waves traveling between two points on 

 a current and to the forces resulting from the interaction. 



This review provides a guide to and an overview of the subject of 

 wave-current interaction, identifying those areas where enough is known 

 of the subject to be useful in practice and also indicating the many 

 areas where further research or development is needed. This review does 

 not give a textbook account of the better known areas or give detailed 

 guidance for design purposes. 



Research into wave-current interaction is pursued today in many 

 countries, and some of it does not appear in English translation. The 

 review, therefore, has a bias toward literature appearing in English. 



