THE NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS WITH THE KINEMATIC AND VORTICITY BOUNDARY CONDITIONS ON NON-FLAT BOUNDARIES

We study the initial-boundary value problem of the Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible fluids in a general domain in R^n with compact and smooth boundary, subject to the kinematic and vorticity boundary conditions on the non-flat boundary. We observe that, under the nonhomogeneous boundary conditions, the pressure p can be still recovered by solving the Neumann problem for the Poisson equation. Then we establish the well-posedness of the unsteady Stokes equations and employ the solution to reduce our initial-boundary value problem into an initial-boundary value problem with absolute boundary conditions. Based on this, we first establish the well-posedness for an appropriate local linearized problem with the absolute boundary conditions and the initial condition （without the incompressibility condition）, which establishes a velocity mapping. Then we develop apriori estimates for the velocity mapping, especially involving the Sobolev norm for the time-derivative of the mapping to deal with the complicated boundary conditions, which leads to the existence of the fixed point of the mapping and the existence of solutions to our initial-boundary value problem. Finally, we establish that, when the viscosity coefficient tends zero, the strong solutions of the initial-boundary value problem in R^n（n ≥ 3） with nonhomogeneous vorticity boundary condition converge in L^2 to the corresponding Euler equations satisfying the kinematic condition.

Boundary Conditions for Momentum and Vorticity at an Interface between Two Fluids

Boundary conditions for momentum and vorticity have been precisely derived, paying attention to the physical meaning of each mathematical expression of terms rigorously obtained from the basic equations: Navier-Stokes equation and the equation of vorticity transport. It has been shown first that a contribution of fluid molecules crossing over a conceptual surface moving with fluid velocity due to their fluctuating motion is essentially important to understanding transport phenomena of momentum and vorticity. A notion of surface layers, which are thin layers at both sides of an interface, has been introduced next to elucidate the transporting mechanism of momentum and vorticity from one phase to the other at an interface through which no fluid molecules are crossing over. A fact that a size of δV, in which reliable values of density, momentum, and velocity of fluid are respectively defined as a volume-averaged mass of fluid molecules, a volume-averaged momentum of fluid molecules and a mass-averaged velocity of fluid molecules, is not infinitesimal but finite has been one of the key factors leading to the boundary conditions for vorticity at an interface between two fluids. The most distinguished characteristics of the boundary conditions derived here are the zero-value conditions for a normal component of momentum flux and tangential components of vorticity flux, at an interface.

Availability of the Boundary Condition for Vorticity

By applying a boundary condition for vorticity [1] in addition to that for velocity, a velocity distribution on a flat plate set in a parallel homogeneous flow has been numerically obtained through a one-way calculation from surface to infinity, without the “matching” procedure between an analysis from surface to infinity and that from infinity to surface. The numerical results obtained were in excellent agreement with those by Howarth [2]. The usage of the boundary condition for vorticity has raised the accuracy of velocity distribution near a plate’s surface and made it possible to realize the one-way calculation from surface to infinity.