Variational methods for pointwise stability of viscous fluid motions (Q1082195)

The aim of this paper, among other things, is to investigate conditions under which the assumption that the Reynolds number Re is strictly less than the infimum R of a certain quadratic functional depending on both the disturbances and the basic flow ensures (in bounded regions) pointwise exponential asymptotic decay to zero of the velocity. By employing the methods of J. Serrin and G. P. Galdi we prove, in a very direct way, that the condition \(Re<R\) in two dimensions provides a sufficient condition for unconditional exponential pointwise stability of the basic flow while, in three dimensions, it furnishes the same kind of decay provided only that the initial data are ''sufficiently small''. All the above results hold for both steady and unsteady basic motions. We devote the last part of the paper to the question or pointwise stability of Couette flow between rotating coaxial cylinders. We derive a condition which guarantees asymptotic unconditional \(L^ 2\)-stability, then Couette flow is pointwise conditionally asymptotically stable. This stability turns out to be unconditional if we consider only axisymmetric disturbances. The plan of the paper is the following: in section 2 we state the variational formulation of pointwise stability, in section 3 we prove the main theorem, while section 4 is devoted to some interesting consequences. Finally, in section 5, we apply the results of section 3 to Couette motion.