TY - JOUR KW - surface gravity waves KW - wave?structure interactions N1 - © 2011 Cambridge University Press EP - 439 AV - public TI - Do waveless ships exist? Results for single-cornered hulls SN - 0022-1120 PB - Cambridge University Press JF - Journal of Fluid Mechanics A1 - Trinh, P A1 - Chapman, SJ A1 - Vanden-Broeck, J SP - 413 VL - 685 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2011.325 ID - discovery1333085 N2 - Consider low-speed potential flow past a ship modelled as a semi-infinite two-dimensional body with constant draught. Is it possible to design the hull in such a way as to eliminate the waves produced downstream of the ship? In 1977, Vanden-Broeck & Tuck had conjectured that a single-cornered piecewise-linear hull will always generate a wake; in this paper, we show how recently developed tools in exponential asymptotics can be used to confirm this conjecture. In particular, we show how the formation of waves near a ship is a necessary consequence of singularities in the ship?s geometry (or its analytic continuation). Comprehensive numerical computations confirm the analytical predictions. Y1 - 2011/10// ER -