Existence, uniqueness and asymptotics of steady jets (Q1196246)

A theoretical investigation is presented of the three-dimensional flow of a viscous fluid through an aperture in a plane, with either a prescribed flux or a prescribed pressure drop at the aperture. It is shown that the solution behaves like \(O(r^{-2})\) as \(r\to\infty\), a result that is expected from physical considerations because the flow through the aperture looks more and more like a flow from a point source as the distance from the aperture becomes large. The linearized Stokes problem in a half-space is studied first, for which quantitative estimates are made of the asymptotic behaviour of solutions. The asymptotic form in directions normal to the plane of the aperture differs from that in the other two directions. The results are extended to the nonlinear Navier- Stokes equation for the case of small data.