Wave blocking phenomenon of surface waves on a shear flow with a constant vorticity

Propagation of gravity-capillary surface waves on a background shear flow with a constant vorticity is studied and compared with the case when the background flow is uniform in depth. Under the assumption that the background flow gradually varies in the horizontal direction, the primary attention is paid to the wave blocking phenomenon; the effect of vorticity on this phenomenon is studied in detail. The conditions for wave blocking are obtained and categorized for different values of the governing dimensionless parameters: Froude number, dimensionless vorticity, and surface tension. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.