A weak attractor and properties of solutions for the three-dimensional Benard problem (Q2455013)

In this paper the properties and asymptotic behaviour of solutions of the Boussinesq system, which consists of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations \[ \begin{gathered} {\partial u\over\partial t}-\nu\Delta u+ (u\cdot\nabla)u+ \xi\omega= f(t)-\nabla p,\quad (t,x)\in (0,T)\times \Omega,\\ \text{div\,}u= 0,\quad u|_{x\in\partial\Omega}= 0,\quad u|_{t=0}= u_0(x),\end{gathered}\tag{1} \] coupled with a parabolic equation \[ \begin{gathered} {\partial\omega\over\partial t}- \Delta\omega+ (u\cdot\nabla)\omega= g(t),\quad (t,x)\in (0,T)\times\Omega,\\ \omega|_{x\in\partial\Omega}= 0,\quad \omega|_{t=0}= \omega_0(x),\end{gathered}\tag{2} \] are studied. There \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^3\) is a bounded open subset with smooth boundary and \(\nu> 0\), \(\xi\in\mathbb{R}^3\) and functions \(f: (0, T)\times\Omega\to\mathbb{R}^3\), \(g: (0,T)\times\Omega\to\mathbb{R}\) are given. This system (known as the Bénard problem) is a well-known model in hydrodynamics and it describes the behaviour of the velocity, the pressure and temperature of an imcompressible fluid. First, some regularity properties of the weak solutions of the system are proved. More precisely, for initial data \(\{u_0,\omega_0\}\in V\times H^1_0(\Omega)\) and arbitrary \(T> 0\) the existence of at least one weak solution \(\{u(t),\omega(t)\}\), such that \(\omega: [0,T]\to L^2(\Omega)\) is continuous with respect to the strong topology under the assumption that the external forces \(f\), \(g\) belong to \(L^2(0,T; H)\) and \(L^4(0,T; L^4(\Omega))\), respectively, is proved. Here, \(H\) and \(V\) are the usual spaces of the Navier-Stokes system. Further the asymptotic behaviour of solutions and the existence of a global attractor is studied. The system (1) (2) is shown to generate a family of multivalued semiflows depending on a parameter \(R\) and the existence of a global attractor for each of them with respect to the weak topology of the phase space \(H\times L^2(\Omega)\) is proved. Moreover, the attractor is shown to be not dependent on the parameter \(R\). The final part of the paper is devoted to the study of the global attractor with respect to the strong topology. In this case only a conditional result, which is valid only under an unproved hypothesis is given.