Discrete mechanics makes it possible to formulate any problem of fluid mechanics or fluid-structure interaction in terms of velocity and potentials of acceleration; the equation system consists of a single-vector equation and potential updates. The scalar potential of the acceleration represents the pressure stress, and the vector potential is related to the rotational shear stress. The formulation of the equation of motion can be expressed in the form of a splitting which leads to an exact projection method; the application of the divergence operator to the discrete motion equation exhibits, without any approximation, a Poisson equation with constant coefficients on the scalar potential whatever the variations in the physical properties of the media. The a posteriori calculation of the pressure is done explicitly by introducing at this stage the local density. Two first examples show the interest of the formulation presented on classical solutions of Navier–Stokes equations; similar to other results obtained with this formulation, the convergence is of order two in space and time for all the quantities, velocity and potentials. This formulation is then applied to a two-phase flow driven by surface tension and partial wettability. The last case corresponds to a fluid–structure interaction problem for which an analytical solution exists.