Regularization of a non-Newtonian system in an unbounded channel: Existence and uniqueness of solutions (Q5936415)

The authors study the flow of bipolar nonlinear fluid (i.e. the viscous part of stress tensor has the form \(T_{ij} = 2 \mu_0(\varepsilon + |e|^2)^{-\frac \alpha 2} e_{ij} - 2\mu_1 \Delta e_{ij}\) with \(e\) being the symmetric part of gradient of velocity, \(\mu_0\), \(\mu_1\), \(\varepsilon\), are positive constants, and \(\alpha \in [0,1)\)) in an unbounded channel in two space dimensions. For the corresponding initial-boundary value problem, the authors prove the existence and uniqueness of weak solution. The method of the proof is based on solving the initial-boundary value problem on an expanding sequence of bounded domains via Galerkin method.