A new approach to energy theory in the stability of fluid motion (Q2640403)

The authors develop a stability theory that provides necessary and sufficient conditions for nonlinear stability. The underlying problem is described by the following evolution equation in a real Hilbert space H: \[ Bu_ t\equiv Lu+Nu,\quad u(0)=u_ 0, \] where B is a positive diagonal matrix, L a linear (possibly unbounded) operator in H and N the nonlinearity. Concerning the operator L the following cases are examined: (i) L is symmetric; (ii) L has no symmetry; (iii) L is of the form \(L=L_ s+\mu M\), where \(\mu >0\), \(L_ s\) is symmetric and M skew- symmetric. If in case (iii) the operators B, \(L_ s\) and M are related in such a way as to form a so-called weakly coupled system then - by introducing a generalized energy functional - the authors are able to prove a stabilizing effect of the skew-symmetric operator M. The theory is applied to several stability problems in fluid motion including flows in unbounded domains.