Dynamics and Stability of Surface Waves with Surfactants

Abstract

In this paper we consider a layer of incompressible viscous fluid lying above a flat periodic surface in a uniform gravitational field. The upper boundary of the fluid is free and evolves in time. We assume that a mass of surfactants resides on the free surface and evolves in time with the fluid. The surfactants dynamics couple to the fluid dynamics by adjusting the surface tension coefficient on the interface and also through tangential Marangoni stresses caused by gradients in surfactant concentration. We prove that small perturbations of equilibria give rise to global-in-time solutions in an appropriate functional space, and we prove that the solutions return to equilibrium exponentially fast. In particular, this proves the asymptotic stability of equilibria.