We prove the existence of three-dimensional steady gravity-capillary waves with vorticity on water of finite depth. The waves are periodic with respect to a given two-dimensional lattice and the relative velocity field is a Beltrami field, meaning that the vorticity is collinear to the velocity. The existence theory is based on multi-parameter bifurcation theory.
We consider a multi-fluid system with several free interfaces. For this system we prove existence of three-dimensional steady gravity-capillary waves with non-zero vorticity. We obtain non-zero vorticity by prescribing the relative velocity fields to be Beltrami fields, for which the vorticity and velocity are parallel. The main result is a multi-parameter bifurcation result for small amplitude waves given in two variants: a first theorem guaranteeing existence under some general parameter assumptions; and a second specific but less exhaustive theorem, for which the assumptions may be explicit…
We prove that for a large class of vorticity functions the crest of a corresponding travelling water wave is necessarily a point of maximal horizontal velocity. We also show that for waves with nonpositive vorticity the pressure in the flow is everywhere larger than the atmospheric pressure. A related a priori estimate for waves with nonnegative vorticity is also given.
We provide high-order approximations to periodic travelling wave profiles and to the velocity field and the pressure beneath the waves, in flows with constant vorticity over a flat bed.
We prove that the streamlines and the profile of periodic gravity water waves traveling over a flat bed with wavespeed which exceeds the horizontal velocity of all fluid particles are real-analytic graphs if the vorticity function is merely integrable.
We prove the first bifurcation result of time quasi-periodic traveling waves solutions for space periodic water waves with vorticity. In particular we prove existence of small amplitude time quasi-periodic solutions of the gravity-capillary water waves equations with constant vorticity, for a bidimensional fluid over a flat bottom delimited by a space-periodic free interface. These quasi-periodic solutions exist for all the values of depth, gravity and vorticity, and restricting the surface tension to a Borel set of asymptotically full Lebesgue measure.
In this paper we construct periodic capillarity-gravity water waves with a piecewise constant vorticity distribution. They describe water waves traveling on superposed linearly sheared currents that have different vorticities. This is achieved by associating to the height function formulation of the water wave problem a diffraction problem where we impose suitable transmission conditions on each line where the vorticity function has a jump. The solutions of the diffraction problem, found by using local bifurcation theory, are the desired solutions of the hydrodynamical problem.
In this paper, we prove the existence of two-dimensional, traveling, capillary-gravity, water waves with compactly supported vorticity. Specifically, we consider the cases where the vorticity is a $δ$-function (a point vortex), or has small compact support (a vortex patch). Using a global bifurcation theoretic argument, we construct a continuum of finite-amplitude, finite-vorticity solutions for the periodic point vortex problem. For the non-periodic case, with either a vortex point or patch, we prove the existence of a continuum of small-amplitude, small-vorticity solutions.
We construct small-amplitude steady periodic gravity water waves arising as the free surface of water flows that contain stagnation points and possess a discontinuous distribution of vorticity in the sense that the flows consist of two layers of constant but different vorticities. We also describe the streamline pattern in the moving frame for the constructed flows.
We modify the nonlinear shallow water equations, the Korteweg-de Vries equation, and the Whitham equation, to permit constant vorticity, and examine wave breaking, or the lack thereof. By wave breaking, we mean that the solution remains bounded but its slope becomes unbounded in finite time. We show that a solution of the vorticity-modified shallow water equations breaks if it carries an increase of elevation; the breaking time decreases to zero as the size of vorticity increases. We propose a full-dispersion shallow water model, which combines the dispersion relation of water waves and the no…
This article is concerned with the incompressible, infinite depth water wave equation in two space dimensions, with gravity and constant vorticity but with no surface tension. We consider this problem expressed in position-velocity potential holomorphic coordinates, and prove local well-posedness for large data, as well as cubic lifespan bounds for small data solutions.
We prove a long-term regularity result for three-dimensional gravity water waves with small initial data but nonzero initial vorticity. We consider solutions whose vorticity vanishes on the free boundary and use this to derive a system for the evolution of the free boundary which reduces to the Zakharov/Craig-Sulem formulation in the irrotational case. We are able to continue the solution until a time determined by the size of the initial vorticity in such a way that if the vorticity is zero, one recovers a lifespan $T\sim ε^{-N}$ where $N$ can be taken arbitrarily large if the initial data is…
In this paper we derive a new formulation of the water waves equations with vorticity that generalizes the well-known Zalkarov-Craig-Sulem formulation used in the irrotational case. We prove the local well-posedness of this formulation, and show that it is formally Hamiltonian. This new for- mulation is cast in Eulerian variable, and in finite depth; we show that it can be used to provide uniform bounds on the lifespan and on the norms of the solutions in the singular shallow water regime. As an application to these re- sults, we derive and provide the first rigorous justification of a shallow…
We consider two-dimensional solitary water waves on a shear flow with an arbitrary distribution of vorticity. Assuming that the horizontal velocity in the fluid never exceeds the wave speed and that the free surface lies everywhere above its asymptotic level, we give a very simple proof that a suitably defined Froude number $F$ must be strictly greater than the critical value $F=1$. We also prove a related upper bound on $F$, and hence on the amplitude, under more restrictive assumptions on the vorticity.
We prove the existence of small amplitude time quasi-periodic solutions of the pure gravity water waves equations with constant vorticity, for a bidimensional fluid over a flat bottom delimited by a space periodic free interface. Using a Nash-Moser implicit function iterative scheme we construct traveling nonlinear waves which pass through each other slightly deforming and retaining forever a quasiperiodic structure. These solutions exist for any fixed value of depth and gravity and restricting the vorticity parameter to a Borel set of asymptotically full Lebesgue measure.
We propose higher-order approximation formulae recovering the surface elevation from the pressure at the bed and the background shear flow for small-amplitude Stokes and solitary water waves. They offer improvements over the pressure transfer function and the hydrostatic approximation. The formulae compare reasonably well with asymptotic approximations of the exact relation between the pressure at the bed and the surface wave in the zero vorticity case, but they incorporate the effects of vorticity through solutions of the Rayleigh equation. Several examples are discussed.
This article is concerned with infinite depth gravity water waves with constant vorticity in two space dimensions. We consider this system expressed in position-velocity potential holomorphic coordinates. We show that, for low-frequency solutions, the Benjamin-Ono equation gives a good and stable approximation to the system on the natural cubic time scale. The proof relies on refined cubic energy estimates and perturbative analysis.
In this paper we consider the steady water wave problem for waves that possess a merely $L_r-$integrable vorticity, with $r\in(1,\infty)$ being arbitrary. We first establish the equivalence of the three formulations--the velocity formulation, the stream function formulation, and the height function formulation-- in the setting of strong solutions, regardless of the value of $r$. Based upon this result and using a suitable notion of weak solution for the height function formulation, we then establish, by means of local bifurcation theory, the existence of small amplitude capillary and capillary…
We study here the propagation of long waves in the presence of vorticity. In the irrotational framework, the Green-Naghdi equations (also called Serre or fully nonlinear Boussinesq equations) are the standard model for the propagation of such waves. These equations couple the surface elevation to the vertically averaged horizontal velocity and are therefore independent of the vertical variable. In the presence of vorticity, the dependence on the vertical variable cannot be removed from the vorticity equation but it was however shown in [?] that the motion of the waves could be described using …
We study stationary capillary-gravity waves in a two-dimensional body of water that rests above a flat ocean bed and below vacuum. This system is described by the Euler equations with a free surface. Our main result states that there exist large families of such waves that carry finite energy and exhibit an exponentially localized distribution of (nontrivial) vorticity. This is accomplished by combining ideas drawn from the theory of spike-layer solutions to singularly perturbed elliptic equations, with techniques from the study of steady solutions of the water wave problem.
We prove real analyticity of all the streamlines, including the free surface, of a gravity- or capillary-gravity-driven steady flow of water over a flat bed, with a Hölder continuous vorticity function, provided that the propagating speed of the wave on the free surface exceeds the horizontal fluid velocity throughout the flow. Furthermore, if the vorticity possesses some Gevrey regularity of index $s$, then the stream function admits the same Gevrey regularity throughout the fluid domain; in particular if the Gevrey index $s$ equals to 1, then we obtain analyticity of the stream function. The…
Steady linear gravity waves of small amplitude travelling on a current of constant vorticity are found. For negative vorticity we show the appearance of internal waves and vortices, wherein the particle trajectories are not any more closed ellipses. For positive vorticity the situation resembles that of Stokes waves, but for large vorticity the trajectories are affected.
This paper studies the classical water wave problem with vorticity described by the Euler equations with a free surface under the influence of gravity over a flat bottom. Based on fundamental work \cite{ConstantinStrauss}, we first obtain two continuous bifurcation curves which meet the laminar flow only one time by using modified analytic bifurcation theorem. They are symmetric waves whose profiles are monotone between each crest and trough. Furthermore, we find that there is at least one inflection point on the wave profile between successive crests and troughs and the free surface is strict…
This paper studies periodic traveling gravity waves at the free surface of water in a flow of constant vorticity over a flat bed. Using conformal mappings the free-boundary problem is transformed into a quasilinear pseudodifferential equation for a periodic function of one variable. The new formulation leads to a regularity result and, by use of bifurcation theory, to the existence of waves of small amplitude even in the presence of stagnation points in the flow.
In this paper we construct periodic capillarity-gravity water waves with an arbitrary bounded vorticity distribution. This is achieved by reexpressing, in the height function formulation of the water wave problem, the boundary condition obtained from Bernoulli's principle as a nonlocal differential equation. This enables us to establish the existence of weak solutions of the problem by using elliptic estimates and bifurcation theory. Secondly, we investigate the a priori regularity of these weak solutions and prove that they are in fact strong solutions of the problem, describing waves with a …
The problem for two-dimensional steady gravity driven water waves with vorticity is investigated. Using a multidimensional bifurcation argument, we prove the existence of small-amplitude periodic steady waves with an arbitrary number of crests per period. The role of bifurcation parameters is played by the roots of the dispersion equation.
We prove real analyticity of all the streamlines, including the free surface, of a steady stratified flow of water over a flat bed in the absence of stagnation points, with a Hölder continuous Bernoulli function and a Hölder continuously differentiable density function. Furthermore, we show that if the Bernoulli function and the density function possess some Gevrey regularity of index s, then the stream function admits the same Gevrey regularity throughout the fluid domain; in particular if the Gevrey index s equals to 1, then we obtain analyticity of the stream function. The regularity result…
We consider the angle $θ$ of inclination (with respect to the horizontal) of the profile of a steady 2D inviscid symmetric periodic or solitary water wave subject to gravity. Although $θ$ may surpass 30$^\circ$ for some irrotational waves close to the extreme wave, Amick [Ami87] proved that for any irrotational wave the angle must be less than 31.15$^\circ$. Is the situation similar for periodic or solitary waves that are not irrotational? The extreme Gerstner wave has infinite depth, adverse vorticity and vertical cusps ($θ= 90^\circ$). Moreover, numerical calculations show that even waves of…
We investigate the existence of solitary gravity waves traversing a two-dimensional body of water that is bounded below by a flat impenetrable ocean bed and above by a free surface of constant pressure. Our main interest is constructing waves of this form that exhibit a discontinuous distribution of vorticity. More precisely, this means that the velocity limits both upstream and downstream to a laminar flow that is merely Lipschitz continuous. We prove that, for any choice of background velocity with this regularity, there exists a global curve of solutions bifurcating from a critical laminar …
We consider the nonlinear problem of steady gravity-driven waves on the free surface of a two-dimensional flow of an incompressible fluid (say, water). The flow is assumed to be unidirectional of finite depth and the water motion is supposed to be rotational. Our aim is to verify the Benjamin--Lighthill conjecture for flows whose total head (Bernoulli's constant) is close to the critical one; the latter is determined by the vorticity distribution so that no horizontal shear flows exist for smaller values of the total head.
This paper considers two-dimensional steady solitary waves with constant vorticity propagating under the influence of gravity over an impermeable flat bed. Unlike in previous works on solitary waves, we allow for both internal stagnation points and overhanging wave profiles. Using analytic global bifurcation theory, we construct continuous curves of large-amplitude solutions. Along these curves, either the wave amplitude approaches the maximum possible value, the dimensionless wave speed becomes unbounded, or a singularity develops in a conformal map describing the fluid domain. We also show t…
This paper is a study of the water wave problem in a two-dimensional domain of infinite depth in the presence of nonzero constant vorticity. A goal is to describe the effects of uniform shear flow on the modulation of weakly nonlinear quasi-monochromatic surface gravity waves. Starting from the Hamiltonian formulation of this problem and using techniques from Hamiltonian transformation theory, we derive a Hamiltonian Dysthe equation for the time evolution of the wave envelope. Consistent with previous studies, we observe that the uniform shear flow tends to enhance or weaken the modulational i…
In this paper, we study solitary waves propagating along the surface of an infinitely deep body of water in two or three dimensions. The waves are acted upon by gravity and capillary effects are allowed --- but not required --- on the interface. We assume that the vorticity is localized in the sense that it satisfies certain moment conditions, and we permit there to be finitely many point vortices in the bulk of the fluid in two dimensions. We also consider a two-fluid model with a vortex sheet. Under mild decay assumptions, we obtain precise asymptotics for the velocity field and free surface…
A comparison theorem is proved for a pair of solutions that satisfy in a weak sense opposite differential inequalities with nonlinearity of the form $f (u)$ with $f$ belonging to the class $L^p_{loc}$. The solutions are assumed to have non-vanishing gradients in the domain, where the inequalities are considered. The comparison theorem is applied to the problem describing steady, periodic water waves with vorticity in the case of arbitrary free-surface profiles including overhanging ones. Bounds for these profiles as well as streamfunctions and admissible values of the total head are obtained.