Steady motions of viscoelastic fluids in three-dimensional exterior domains. Existence, uniqueness and asymptotic behaviour (Q1818776)

The authors study two models of incompressible, viscoelastic fluids: second grade fluid and Maxwell fluid. The notion is steady past a three-dimensional obstacle, where the fluid adheres to an impermeable boundary, the obstacle being bounded or unbounded. For the second grade fluid moving around a rigid body \({\mathcal B}\subset\mathbb{R}^3\) the boundary value problem is the following: find the pressure \(p\) and the velocity \(v=(v_1, v_2,v_3)\) from the system \[ -\nu\Delta v-\alpha v\cdot \nabla\Delta v+\nabla p=f+ \nabla\cdot \bigl(\alpha (\nabla v)^T(\nabla v)+ (\nabla v)^T \bigr)-v \otimes v\text{ in }\Omega, \] \[ \nabla v=0\text{ in }\Omega,\quad v=0\text{ on }\partial\Omega, \] \(\lim_{|x|\to\infty}v(x)=0\), where \(\Omega= \mathbb{R}^3 \setminus {\mathcal B}\), \(x=(x_1,x_2,x_3) \in\Omega\), \(\nu\) -- the kinematic viscosity coefficient, \(\alpha\) -- the first normal stress modulus and \(f\) -- the exterior force. For the Maxwell fluid the boundary value problem is: \[ (v\cdot\nabla) v+ \nabla p=f+ \nabla{\mathcal T}, {\mathcal T}+\lambda_1 \bigl(v\cdot \nabla){\mathcal T}-\nabla v{\mathcal T}-{\mathcal T}(\nabla v)^T\bigr)=\nu_0\bigl(\nabla v+(\nabla v)^T \bigr) \text{ in }\Omega, \nabla v=0\text{ on }\partial\Omega, \] \(\lim_{|x|\to \infty}v=0\), where \({\mathcal T}\) -- the extra tensor, \(\lambda_1>0\) -- the stress relaxation time. For the second grade fluid the authors prove uniqueness conditions and present properties of the unique solution. For the Maxwell fluid they prove a similar theorem in the last part of the paper. The obtained results are compared with similar results obtained by others and by the authors of the present paper. They are quoted in a long bibliographical list.