SurfaceWaves on Steady Perfect-Fluid Flows with Vorticity

This is a theory of two-dimensional steady periodic surface waves on flows under gravity in which the given data are three quantities that are independent of time in the corresponding evolution problem: the volume of fluid per period, the circulation per period on the free stream line, and the rearrangement class (equivalently, the distribution function) of the vorticity field. A minimizer of the total energy per period among flows satisfying these three constraints is shown to be a weak solution of the surface wave problem for which the vorticity is a decreasing function of the stream function. This decreasing function can be thought of as an infinite-dimensional Lagrange multiplier corresponding to the vorticity rearrangement class being specified in the minimization problem. (Note that functional dependence of vorticity on the stream function was not specified a priori but is part of the solution to the problem and ensures the flow is steady.) To illustrate the idea with a minimum of technical difficulties, the existence of nontrivial waves on the surface of a fluid flowing with a prescribed distribution of vorticity and confined beneath an elastic sheet is proved. The theory applies equally to irrotational flows and to flows with locally square-integrable vorticity. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.