Zero viscosity limit for analytic solutions of the primitive equations (Q303700)

The authors study the the primitive equations in the zero viscosity limit. The primitive equations are posed with non-slip boundary conditions in the vertical variable. Using matched asymptotic expansions, the authors prove that solutions of the primitive equations converge to solutions of the hydrostatic Euler equations as the viscosity \(\nu\) vanishes. Specifically, they show that, in the limit \(\nu\rightarrow 0\), the solution \(\mathbf u\) of the primitive equations has the asymptotic form \( {\mathbf u} = {\mathbf u}^{(0)} +\sqrt{\nu}\,{\mathbf u}^{(1)}+\sqrt{nu}\,{\mathbf e}, \) where \({\mathbf u}^{(0)}\) is - up to a boundary layer correction due to tangential slip - the solution of the hydrostatic Euler equations, \({\mathbf u}^{(1)}\) consists of small corrections to the hydrostatic flow and the boundary layer, and \({\mathbf e}\) is a general error term, uniformly bounded on a local time interval. The boundary layer corrections are shown to decay exponentially outside a small layer of order \(O(\sqrt{\nu})\) near the boundary. Existence and uniqueness of solutions for the primitive equations is obtained for times that depend on the size of the analytic initial data, but that stay finite with vanishing viscosity.