Weak and strong attractors for the 3D Navier-Stokes system (Q2381858)

The authors study the asymptotic behaviour of weak solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations \[ \partial_t u+\nu Au+B(u,u)=f,\quad u(\tau)=u_\tau\tag{1} \] considered on a smooth bounded domain \(\Omega\subseteq\mathbb R^3\), and subject to homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions; here \(A=-P_\Delta\) is the Stokes operator, while \(B(u,u)=P(u\nabla)u\) is the nonlinearity. Eq. (1) is studied in an \(L^2\)-setting based on the familiar spaces \(H\), \(V\) [\textit{R. Temam}, Navier-Stokes equations. Theory and numerical analysis. Amsterdam etc.: North-Holland (1979; Zbl 0426.35003)]. Following these lines, a standard definition of weak solution is given. Starting point is an unproved assumption (H) imposed on the exterior force \(f(t)\): (H) Let \(f\in L^2_{\text{for}}([\tau,\infty),H)\); there exists a function \(F(\alpha,\beta,\gamma)\), continuous and nondecreasing in \(\alpha\) and nonincreasing in \(\beta\), such that for any \(u_\tau\in V\) there exists a globally defined weak solution \(u(\;)\) such that \(u(\tau)=u_\tau\) and \[ \|u(t)\|_{L^4(\Omega)^3} \leq F(\|u_\tau\|_V,\tau,T) \text{ for all }T > \tau\text{ and }t\in[\tau,T].\tag{2} \] It then follows that the weak solutions \(u(\;)\) provided by assumption (H) satisfy \[ V_\tau(u(t))\leq V_\tau(u(s)),\quad t\geq s\geq \tau\tag{3} \] where \[ V_\tau(u(t))=\tfrac12\|u(t)\|^2+\nu\int^t_\tau \|(\nabla u)(r)\|^2\,dr-\int^t_\tau(f(r),u(r))\,dr, \] and are unique in the class of solutions which satisfy (3). The authors then prove a series of theorems, all expressing properties of weak solutions provided by (H). Based on these preparations, the authors then proceed to study a class of attractors associated with these weak solutions. They set \(\tau=0\) in (1)--(3), assume that \(f\in H\) in (1) is autonomous and define a set valued mapping \(G\) from \(\mathbb R_+\times H\) into the set \(P(H)\) of all nonempty subsets of \(H\) as follows: (4) \(G(t,u_0)\) is the set of all \(u(t)\), where \(u(\;)\) is a globally defined weak solution subject to (3), and with \(u(0)=u_0.\) It is proved that \(G\) is a strict multivalued semiflow, i.e. \[ G(0,u_0)=u_0\text{ and }G(t_1,G(t_2,u_0))=G(t_1+t_2,u_0). \] For such semiflows the notion of global attractor can be defined along established lines. The authors prove that the semiflow \(G\) has a global attractor \(\mathcal A\), which is minimal. The case of nonautonomous \(f(t)\) is more involved and requires the introduction of multivalued processes in the sense of \textit{A. V. Babin} and \textit{M. I. Vishik} [Attractors of evolution equations. Moscow: Nauka (1989; Zbl 0804.58003)]. The authors prove the existence of a global attractor in this more general situation. The paper concludes with a theory of attractors for multivalued processes on topological spaces, extending results obtained by \textit{V. S. Melnik} and \textit{J. Valero} [Set-Valued Anal. 8, No.~4, 375--403 (2000; Zbl 1063.35040)] for metric spaces.