Let . The interface is a material surface for both fluids: its material derivative vanishes on . With and , this gives
Thus the kinematic boundary condition says that particles stay on the moving interface. The tangential velocities can differ; each side has its own material derivative. Replacing both derivatives by one background speed would be incorrect.
The dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface is pressure continuity, because the fluids have no viscous normal stress and there is no surface tension. The unsteady Bernoulli equation in each layer of irrotational flow reads
Equating these pressures at gives the required dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface. Choose the potential gauges so that , or set both constants to zero relative to a common reference pressure. For example, removes the distinct uniform-stream Bernoulli constants without changing either velocity. Material-interface kinematics and pressure continuity supply the two matching conditions, with the Bernoulli gauge understood.
Separate the uniform stream and an arbitrary time-dependent gauge from each velocity potential: . Only gradients of the velocity potential determine the velocity field. The remote fluid must remain in its unperturbed uniform stream, so
After fixing the harmless gauge, the nonzero-wavenumber perturbation velocity potentials themselves vanish at the corresponding infinities. Incompressible flow and irrotational flow give the Laplace equation for each perturbation. For a normal mode with , the vertical amplitude solves , hence
The opposite exponentials are excluded because they make the perturbation grow at infinity. It is the perturbation, rather than the total potential , that decays.
Expanding the kinetic helicity conservation law separates advection from the other flux:
Thus material conservation of kinetic helicity density holds precisely when
An especially useful sufficient pair of conditions is incompressible flow, , and constancy of along integral curves of the vorticity, . Together these conditions make both terms vanish without cancellation. They are not necessary individually, because the two terms in the displayed balance can cancel. An irrotational flow is a trivial conserved case with .
For contrast, combining the balance with mass conservation gives
Consequently constancy of along integral curves of the vorticity makes an advected scalar even in compressible flow; it does not generally make itself constant.
Use the linearized boundary condition: evaluate at and discard products of perturbations. The kinematic boundary condition and Young–Laplace equation become
Incompressible flow and irrotational flow give the Laplace equation for each potential. For a normal mode, the wall conditions select
With , the kinematic conditions give and . Hence and . Substitution into the dynamic condition gives the finite-depth Rayleigh-Taylor dispersion relation:
Its denominator is positive. Assuming and , negative therefore produces a growing branch with , as in Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
For irrotational flow, . An impermeable stationary horizontal wall has zero normal velocity, so the kinematic boundary condition is
No tangential no-slip condition is imposed on these inviscid fluids.
Write the density and pressure as and , and let be the small fluid velocity. The linear homentropic acoustic equations are
where the adiabatic sound speed is
If the flow is irrotational, write . The momentum equation integrates spatially to
a purely time-dependent integration term having been absorbed into . Substitution into continuity gives the wave equation
so the wave speed is .
To obtain energy conservation, dot the momentum equation with and use the product rule:
The continuity and pressure-density relations give
Therefore the acoustic energy conservation law is
with acoustic energy density and intensity
Let the disturbed sheet be and take a normal mode proportional to , with . Irrotational flow and the rigid-wall condition at give perturbation velocity potentials
The two linearized kinematic boundary conditions at are
The Unsteady Bernoulli equation gives and . Continuity of pressure therefore yields the finite-depth vortex-sheet dispersion relation
or, with ,
For its two roots are
One root has positive temporal growth for every , so every finite wavelength is subject to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
Writing , direct differentiation gives
so . Likewise,
so the two-dimensional vorticity vanishes. The flow is therefore incompressible and irrotational away from the origin.
For an inviscid fluid of constant mass density with no body force, the Euler equations for an inviscid fluid are
The vector identity
and irrotational flow give . Writing in terms of a velocity potential, we obtain
Thus the bracket depends only on time:
Since adding a function of time to leaves unchanged, that function may be chosen to absorb . This is the Unsteady Bernoulli equation.
For irrotational flow, . Incompressibility gives the Laplace equation
The rigid side walls impose no penetration:
and decay in the infinitely deep fluid requires as .
Linearizing the kinematic condition from part (a) about gives
The Unsteady Bernoulli equation, evaluated at the surface and linearized about hydrostatic equilibrium, gives the dynamic condition
These are the linearized free-surface boundary conditions. Initial values for and specify the transient; below we also record the initially quiescent solution.
Let denote the bubble size, its speed, and the Reynolds number. Outside a thin boundary layer, inertia dominates and the flow is an irrotational flow with velocity scale and strain scale . Its viscous dissipation has order
in three dimensions.
The boundary-layer thickness is
For a clean bubble the stress-free boundary condition prescribes tangential stress rather than tangential velocity. The outer flow already has tangential strain of order , so cancelling that stress requires a velocity correction of only
not a correction of order . Its gradient remains , and its boundary-layer dissipation is
which is asymptotically smaller.
In steady translation, the drag power balances viscous dissipation. The leading estimate therefore follows from the known outer flow alone:
in three dimensions. This is the dissipation estimate for high-Reynolds-number bubble drag.
Write the velocity potentials in the upper, middle and lower domains as , and . Irrotational flow and incompressible flow imply the Laplace equation
The far-field boundary conditions are
Every shear layer is a material interface. The exact kinematic boundary condition at is
and at it is
Here each equation is evaluated on the indicated moving interface.
Finally, pressure continuity is the dynamic boundary condition for an inviscid interface. The Unsteady Bernoulli equation gives
after absorbing spatially constant functions of time into the potentials.
Unsteady Bernoulli equation Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For time-dependent irrotational flow with , constant mass density, and no body force, the Euler equations for an inviscid fluid integrate to
A time-dependent change of gauge in may set .