On the motion of a body with a cavity filled with compressible fluid (Q1738298)

The authors consider the motion of a coupled system $\mathcal{S}$ consisting of a rigid body $\mathcal{B}$ having an interior cavity $\mathcal{C}$ entirely filled with a viscous and compressible fluid $\mathcal{F}$. The system $\mathcal{S}=\mathcal{B}\cup \mathcal{F}$ moves in the absence of external forces. The authors write the conservation equations of linear momentum, mass and angular momentum that they then rewrite in a frame attached to $\mathcal{B}$, and they obtain the evolution problem: $\partial _{t}(\rho u)+\operatorname{div} (\rho v\otimes u)+\rho \omega \times u+\nabla p(\rho )=\operatorname{div} S(\nabla u)$, $\partial _{t}\rho +\operatorname{div} (\rho v)=0$ in $ \mathcal{C}\times (0\times \infty )$, $\frac{d}{dt}M+\omega \times M=0$, with the boundary condition $u=\omega (t)\times x+\xi (t)$ on $\partial \mathcal{C}\times (0,\infty )$. Here $\rho $ is the density and $p$ is the pressure of the fluid which are linked through an isentropic relation $ p=a\rho ^{\gamma }$, $u$ is the velocity and $v=u-\omega \times x-\xi $ is the relative velocity field, $\omega $ being the angular velocity, $\xi $ the center of mass, $S(\nabla u)=\mu (\nabla u+\nabla u^{T})+(\lambda -\frac{ 2}{3}\mu ) \operatorname{div} u$, $M=I_{\mathcal{C}}\cdot \omega +\int_{\mathcal{C} }\rho x\times u$, $I_{\mathcal{C}}$ being the inertia tensor of $\mathcal{C}$ with respect to $\mathcal{B}$. The initial conditions $\rho (0)=\rho _{0}$ and $\rho (0)u(0)=q$ are imposed. The authors introduce the associated steady state problem for which they define the notion of renormalized weak solution. They prove that, if $(\rho ,u,\omega ,\xi )$ is a renormalized weak solution to this steady problem, then $v=0$, which means that $\mathcal{S} $ moves by a rigid motion. They establish a decomposition and properties of the inertia tensor $I$ and they prove a characterization of any weak solution $(\rho _{S},u_{S},\omega _{S},\xi _{S})$ with $\rho _{S}>0$. In a first step, the authors prove the existence of a local strong solution $u$ to the evolution problem such that $u| _{\mathcal{C}}\in L^{2}(0,T^{\ast };W^{3,2})\cap C([0,T^{\ast }];W^{2,2})$ assuming regularity hypotheses on the data and on the initial data. This solution is unique in its class. The proof is based on Schauder's fixed point theorem, the authors prove estimates on the solution of some continuity equation and the existence of a strong solution to the balance equation of linear momentum. In a second step, the authors prove the existence of a unique global strong solution to the evolution problem assuming higher regularity results on the data and some smallness property of the initial data. The proof is essentially based on estimates which allow to apply the previous existence theorem on $ [0,T^{\ast }]$, then to observe that at $T^{\ast }$ the smallness hypothesis allows to apply again the existence theorem to derive the existence of a strong solution on $[0,2T^{\ast }]$, and the proof goes on with respect to $ n\in \mathbb{N}$. The final main result of the paper describes the behavior when $t\rightarrow \infty $ of the strong solution of the evolution problem assuming that the three eigenvalues of the inertia tensor are distinct.