Flow of a Periodic Interfacial Travelling Water Wave

Abstract We consider a symmetric periodic travelling wave propagating at the interface between two homogeneous, incompressible, irrotational and inviscid fluids bounded by horizontal planes. For interfacial waves of small amplitude, we present a formula for the interface wave depending on the pressure at the rigid lid and at the flat bottom, and, for the general non-linear case, we derive a lower bound for the interfacial wave height. Under certain conditions imposed on the horizontal component of the motion at the interface and supposing that the horizontal components of the velocity in each layer never reach the wave speed, we study the monotonicity of the horizontal component of the velocity field along the streamlines and also analyze the monotonicity of the pressure along horizontal lines throughout the fluid in both layers, and along the boundary of the domain, between the crest and the trough. Finally, based on the behavior of the velocity field components, we build a pictorial description of the particle paths in both layers.