Capillary surfaces in non-cylindrical domains (Q5926113)

Summary: This paper is concerned with the capillary problem in a class of non-cylindrical domains in \(K\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) obtained by scaling a bounded cross-section \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) along the vertical axis. The capillary surfaces are described in two different ways. In the first model, they are described as the boundary of a Caccioppoli set, and in a second model, after transforming \(K\) to a cylinder, they are described as graphs of functions on \(\Omega\). The volume of the fluid is prescribed. For both models, the energy functional is derived and declared on the appropriate function space consisting of BV-functions. The main results are existence of minimizers and a priori bounds for them, obtained by using direct methods in the calculus of variations. For the special case of a cone over the domain \(\Omega\), a criterion is given to assure that the tip is not filled with liquid. Another point of examination concerns modelling the volume restriction by means of a Lagrange multiplier.