A geometric look at momentum flux and stress in fluid mechanics

Abstract: We develop a geometric formulation of fluid dynamics, valid on arbitrary Riemannian manifolds, that regards the momentum-flux and stress tensors as 1-form valued 2-forms, and their divergence as a covariant exterior derivative. We review the necessary tools of differential geometry and obtain the corresponding coordinate-free form of the equations of motion for a variety of inviscid fluid models -- compressible and incompressible Euler equations, Lagrangian-averaged Euler-$\alpha$ equations, magnetohydrodynamics and shallow-water models -- using a variational derivation which automatically yields a symmetric momentum flux. We also consider dissipative effects and discuss the geometric form of the Navier--Stokes equations for viscous fluids and of the Oldroyd-B model for visco-elastic fluids.