Two two-dimensional free boundary problems describing the erosion of solid surfaces by the flow of inviscid fluid in the presence of trapped vortices are considered. The first problem tackles an initially flat, infinite fluid-solid interface with uniform flow at infinity and a vortex in equilibrium above the surface. The second involves flow around a finite body with a trailing Föppl-type vortex pair. The conformal invariance of the complex potential permits both problems to be formulated as a Polubarinova–Galin (PG) type equation in which the time-dependent eroding surface in the physical z-plane is mapped to the fixed boundary of the $$\zeta $$
ζ
-disk. The Hamiltonian governing the equilibrium position of the vortex (or vortex pair in the second problem) is also found from the same map. In each problem, the PG equation giving the conformal map is found numerically and the time-dependent evolution of the interface and vortex location is determined. Different models governing the erosion of the interface are investigated in which the normal velocity of the boundary depends on some given function of the fluid flow velocity at the boundary. Typically, in the infinite surface case, erosion leads to the formation of a symmetric valley beneath the vortex which, in turn, moves downward toward the interface. A finite body undergoes erosion which is asymmetric in the flow direction leading to a flattening of the lee surface of the body so displaying some similarity to the experiments and associated viscous theory of Ristroph et al, Moore et al (Proc Natl Acad Sci 109(48):19606–19609, 2012, Phys Fluids 25(11):116602, 2013).
