Flow dynamics for coupled surface and internal deep-water waves (Q2687951)

This paper discusses fluid motion involving coupled linear internal and surface waves in a deep-water two-fluid-layer model in which the lower layer has infinite depth. More specifically, the authors study a fluid separated into two vertically stratified fluid layers of differing (but constant) densities separated by a sharp internal interface. They study the fluid flow in the two layers using both the Eulerian and Lagrangian formulation. These results complement results of the authors for similar fluid motion, but one in which the bottom layer has finite depth. In Section 2, the authors study fluid flow using the Eulerian formulation. They begin by introducing the equations of motion and boundary conditions governing the model of interest. They proceed to describe assumptions which allow the authors to consider linearized versions of the governing equations. They finish that section by finding explicit travelling wave solutions of the linearized equations which also satisfy the boundary conditions, at the surface and interface for the top layer, and at the interface and as \(y \rightarrow -\infty\) for the bottom layer. In Section 3, they reformulate the problem from the Lagrangian point of view describing the motion of a particle in each layer of fluid using a nonlinear dynamical system. Since these systems are nonlinear, they cannot derive explicit solutions, but instead they perform phase-plane analyses. In order to do so, they first consider travelling wave solutions, thus reducing each system to an autonomous system which is easier to analyze. Finally, in section 4, they use the information gathered about solutions of the autonomous systems to prove results on the nonlinear dynamical systems of interest. They also discuss how the solutions in the lower fluid layer of infinite depth differ from solutions of a similar model in which the bottom layer has finite depth.