Exponential decay of Bénard convection problem with surface tension (Q2416360)

The authors consider the Boussinesq approximation in the Bénard convection problem in a shallow horizontal layer of a fluid heated from below evolving in a moving 3D domain. The depth of the lower boundary is assumed to be a fixed constant, while the upper boundary is a free surface. In order to work in a fixed domain, the authors use a flattening transformation technique. Then, defining the energy and dissipation functionals, the authors find a priori estimates for the solutions to the problem. They show that under a smallness condition on the energy and a finiteness condition for the integrated dissipation the energy decays exponentially and the dissipation integral is bounded by the initial data. In order to prove the existence of global exponential decaying solutions, they couple a priori estimates with a local existence result.