Capillarity-driven Stokes flow: the one-phase problem as small viscosity limit (Q6056601)

The paper studies the problem \( \mu \Delta v-\nabla p=0\), \( \nabla \cdot v=0\) in \( \Omega (t)\), \( T_\mu (v,p)n=\sigma \kappa n\) on \( \partial \Omega (t)\), \( (v,p)(x)\to 0\) as \( |x|\to \infty \), \( V_n=v\cdot n\) on \( \partial \Omega (t)\) for \( t>0\). Here \( \Omega (t) =\{ [x_1,x_2];x_2<f(t,x_1)\} \) and \( f(0,\cdot )\) is given. The first goal of this paper is to show that, at each time instant \( t>0\), the free boundary, given via \( f=f(t)\), identifies the velocity field \( v=v(t)\) and the pressure \( p=p(t)\) uniquely. The second main result concerns the limit behavior for \( \mu^+\to 0\) of the two-phase quasistationary Stokes problem \( \mu ^\pm \Delta w^\pm -\nabla q^\pm =0\), \( \nabla \cdot w^\pm =0\) in \( \Omega^\pm (t)\), \( [w]=0\), \( [T_\mu (w,q)]n=-\sigma \kappa n\) on \( \partial \Omega^+ (t)\), \( (w^\pm,q^\pm )(x)\to 0\) as \( |x|\to \infty \), \( V_n=w^\pm \cdot n\) on \( \partial \Omega^+ (t)\) for \( t>0\) and \( f(0,\cdot )=f^0\) with \( \mu^+=\mu \) fixed. Here \( \Omega^- (t) =\{ [x_1,x_2];x_2<f(t,x_1)\} \), \( \Omega^+ (t)=\{ [x_1,x_2];x_2>f(t,x_1)\} \). Moreover, \( w^\pm (t)\) and \( q^\pm (t)\) represent the velocity and pressure fields in \( \Omega^\pm \), respectively, and \( [w]\) (respectively \( [T_\mu (w,q)]\)) is the jump of the velocity (respectively stress tensor) across the moving interface). The results are obtained using the integral equation method.