On a variational method for solving hydrodynamical free boundary problems (Q1595478)

The author considers plane stationary potential flows of incompressible fluid and filtration problems with free boundaries. Let \(P\) be a polygon on the complex plane with vertices \(z_k\) \((k=1,2,\dots,n)\). It is possible that some of the vertices \(z_k\) are placed at infinity. The problems are reduced to the determination of an arc \(L\) joining the vertices \(z_1\) and \(z_n\) and an analytic function \(\omega(z)=\varphi+i\psi\) in the domain \(D\) with \(\partial D=P\cup L\), which satisfies some boundary conditions on \(\partial D\). For the filtration problems, these boundary conditions are written as \(\Phi(\varphi,\psi)=0\) with a given function \(\Phi\). The method of solutions consists in constructing simpler polygons and their deformations in such a way that the corresponding parameters of auxiliary conformal mappings can be easily determined at each solution step.