Nonhomogeneous boundary value problems for stationary Navier-Stokes equations in a multiply connected bounded domain (Q1036212)

The authors consider the stationary Navier-Stokes equations on a multiply connected bounded domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb {R}^n\) (\(n=2,3\)) with the boundary conditions \(\mathbf v =\beta\) on \(\partial \Omega = \bigcup_{i=0}^L \Gamma_i\), where \(\Gamma_i \in C^{\infty}\) are the connected components of \(\partial \Omega\), \(\mathbf v\) denotes the velocity. The boundary data \(\beta\) belongs to the Sobolev space \(H^{1/2}(\partial \Omega)\) and satisfies the general flux condition \(\sum_{i=0}^L \int_{\Gamma_i} \mathbf v \cdot \nu\,ds=0\), where \(\nu\) is the outward unit normal vector to \(\partial \Omega\). The stated boundary value problem has at least one weak solution if the additional conditions \(\int_{\Gamma_i} \mathbf v \cdot \nu ds =0\) for all \(i=1,2,\dots L\) hold. It is still unknown whether there exist solutions satisfying only the general flux condition. The authors prove that there exists at least one weak solution if an estimate for \(\beta\) holds. This estimate can be described by the Helmholtz-Weyl decomposition. Let \(\operatorname{div}\mathbf b = 0\) in \(\Omega\) and \(\mathbf b =\beta\) on \(\partial \Omega\) (\(\mathbf b \in H^1(\Omega)\)). Then \(\mathbf b\) is decomposed as \(\mathbf b=\mathbf h+ \operatorname{rot}\mathbf w\), where \(\mathbf h\) is harmonic in \(\Omega\), \(\operatorname{div}\mathbf w=0\) in \(\Omega\) and \(\mathbf w \cdot \nu=0\) on \(\partial \Omega\). The estimate has the form \(\sup_z (\mathbf h,(\mathbf z \cdot \nabla) \mathbf z)\|\mathbf z\|^{-2} < \mu\), where \(\mathbf z\) runs over the solutions of the Euler equations, \(\mu\) is the viscosity constant in the Navier-Stokes equations. The authors show that their estimate is weaker than other additional conditions [\textit{G. P. Galdi}, An introduction to the mathematical theory of the Navier-Stokes equations. Vol. II: Nonlinear steady problems. New York: Springer-Verlag (1994; Zbl 0949.35005)]. The validity of Leray's inequality for various assumptions about the symmetry of \(\Omega\) is also studied.