Solitary waves at the interface of a two-layer fluid

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the solitary waves at the interface of a two-layer incompressible inviscid fluid confined by two horizontal rigid walls, taking the effect of surface tension into account. First of all, we establish the basic equations suitable for the model considered, and hence derive the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation satisfied by the first-order elevation of the interface with the aid of the reductive perturbation method under the approximation of weak dispersion. It is found that the KdV solitary waves may be convex upward or downward. It depends on whether the signs of the coefficients α and μ of the KdV equation are the same or not. Then we examine in detail two critical cases, in which the nonlinear effect and the dispersion effect cannot balance under the original approximation. Applying other appropriate approximations, we obtain the modified KdV equation for the critical case of first kind (α=0), and conclude that solitary waves cannot exist in the case considered as μ>0, but may still occur as μ<0, being in the form other than that of the KdV solitary wave.As for the critical case of second kind (μ=0), we deduce the generalized KdV equation, for which a kind of oscillatory solitary waves may occur. In addition, we discuss briefly the near-critical cases. The conclusions in this paper are in good agreement with some classical results which are extended considerably.