A Variational Characterization of Fluid Sloshing with Surface Tension

Abstract

We consider the sloshing problem for an incompressible, inviscid, irrotational fluid in an open container, including effects due to surface tension on the free surface. We restrict ourselves to a constant contact angle and seek time-harmonic solutions of the linearized problem, which describes the time-evolution of the fluid due to a small initial disturbance of the surface at rest. As opposed to the zero surface tension case, where the problem reduces to a partial differential equation for the velocity potential, we obtain a coupled system for the velocity potential and the free surface displacement. We derive a new variational formulation of the coupled problem and establish the existence of solutions using the direct method from the calculus of variations. We prove a domain monotonicity result for the fundamental sloshing eigenvalue. In the limit of zero surface tension, we recover the variational formulation of the mixed Steklov-Neumann eigenvalue problem and give the first-order perturbation formula for a simple eigenvalue.