Shear layer flow in a channel: Estimate on the dimension of the attractor (Q2367681)

This paper addresses two-dimensional shear-layer channel flow. Many parabolic dissipative equations (such as the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations which arise in this problem) possess a global attractor which has finite Hausdorff and fractal dimensions. As the time variable goes to infinity, all trajectories converge to that attractor, so that the long term behavior of the system is essentially that of a finite dimensional system. Attractors in Navier-Stokes systems have been investigated in some depth. Results are known in some special cases concerning both existence of the attractor and estimate of its dimension. In the case of a fluid driven by its boundary, the existing estimates for the dimension of the attractor depend exponentially on the Reynolds number, and are thus physically unrealistic. The author of this paper establishes the existence of an attractor for the two-dimensional shear layer channel flow, and bounds its dimension by a constant times the cube of the Reynolds number.