Hamiltonian formulation for the motion of a two fluid system with free surface

Abstract

In this work, a theoretical investigation is performed on modeling interfacial and surface waves in a layered fluid system. The physical system consists of two immiscible liquid layers of different densities ρ1 > ρ2 with an interfacial surface and a free surface, inside a prismatic-section tank. On the basis of the potential formulation of the fluid motion, we derive a nonlinear system of partial differential equations using the Hamiltonian formulation for irrotational flow of the two fluids of different density subject to conservative force. As a consequence of the assumption of potential velocity, the dynamics of the system can be described in terms of variables evaluated only at the boundary of the fluid system, namely the separation surface and the free surface. This Hamiltonian formulation enables one to define the evolution equations of the system in a canonical form by using the functional derivatives.