Global well-posedness of the velocity-vorticity-Voigt model of the 3D Navier-Stokes equations (Q2423257)

This paper proposed a new regularization of the 3D Navier-Stokes equations, which called the 3D velocity-vorticity-Voigt (VVV) model: \[ \left\{ \begin{aligned} &(I-\alpha^{2}\Delta)\frac{\partial u}{\partial t}-\nu\Delta u+w\times u+\nabla p=f, & (a) \\ &\frac{\partial w}{\partial t}-\nu\Delta w+(u\cdot\nabla)w-(w\cdot\nabla)u=\nabla\times f, & (b)\\ &\nabla\cdot u=0, & (c)\\ &u(\cdot,0)=u_{0} \ \ \ \text{and } \ \ \ w(\cdot,0)=w_{0}. & (d) \end{aligned} \right. \] The VVV system is the PDE generalization of stabilized numerical discretizations of Navier-Stokes equations in velocity-vorticity form. The term $-\alpha^{2}\Delta\partial_{t}u$ is referred to as the ``Voigt-term'', the regularization considered in this article refers to only applying Voigt-regularization to the momentum equation, but not add to the vorticity equation. The authors proved the global well-posedness and regularity of this model under periodic boundary conditions. The authors also gave the convergence of the model's velocity and vorticity to their counterparts in the 3D Navier-Stokes equations and provided a criterion for finite-time blow-up of the 3D Navier-Stokes equation. This paper adopts the method of combining the Voigt-regularization with the velocity-vorticity formulation. The Voigt-regularization has a strong regularizing effect, which destroys certain fundamental qualities of the equations. On the other hand, the velocity-vorticity formulation has no regularizing effect at all, although it is the basis of many well-behaved numerical algorithms. The authors combined these two approaches to make the new system to have solution that are closer to the actual physics of fluids, while still having enough regularization. The Voigt-regularization and the velocity-vorticity have seen much study as promising approaches to alleviating some of the analytical and computational difficulty inherent in the 3D Navier-Stokes equations of incompressible fluid flow. The result is well and interesting.