Single and Double Generator Bracket Formulations of Geophysical Fluids with Irreversible Processes

Abstract

The equations of reversible (inviscid, adiabatic) fluid dynamics have a well-known variational formulation based on Hamilton's principle and the Lagrangian, to which is associated a Hamiltonian formulation that involves a Poisson bracket structure. These variational and bracket structures underlie many of the most basic principles that we know about geophysical fluid flows, such as conservation laws. However, real geophysical flows also include irreversible processes, such as viscous dissipation, heat conduction, diffusion and phase changes. Recent work has demonstrated that the variational formulation can be extended to include irreversible processes and non-equilibrium thermodynamics, through the new concept of thermodynamic displacement. By design, and in accordance with fundamental physical principles, the resulting equations automatically satisfy the first and second law of thermodynamics. Irreversible processes can also be incorporated into the bracket structure through the addition of a dissipation bracket. This gives what are known as the single and double generator bracket formulations, which are the natural generalizations of the Hamiltonian formulation to include irreversible dynamics. Here the variational formulation for irreversible processes is shown to underlie these bracket formulations for fully compressible, multicomponent, multiphase geophysical fluids with a single temperature and velocity. Many previous results in the literature are demonstrated to be special cases of this approach. Finally, some limitations of the current approach (especially with regards to precipitation and nonlocal processes such as convection) are discussed, and future directions of research to overcome them are outlined.