Divergence free functions in a problem of the flow between a fixed inner pipe and an outer pipe with a moving boundary (Q6196036)

This paper studies the divergence free velocity field for a flow occurring in the annular space between concentric circular pipes with a moving lateral boundary. Divergence free functions defined on time dependent domains are essential for addressing fluid-structure interaction problems within pipes featuring moving boundaries. Specifically, in the weak formulation, these functions serve as test functions linked to the domain's shape through boundary conditions. Given the approximation processes involved, it becomes necessary to obtain information on the behaviour of these divergence free functions on the movement of the boundary. The temporal evolution of the fluid domain poses a significant challenge when exploring the existence of solutions for fluid-structure interaction problems. The approach chosen by the authors to tackle this challenge involves mapping the current fluid domain onto a fixed reference domain and reformulating the entire problem within it. The authors aim to determine an explicit representation of such functions fulfilling the necessary boundary conditions in order to study the velocity components' dependence on the domain deformation. This research builds upon the authors' prior work [J. Math. Fluid Mech. 21, No. 2, Paper No. 32, 17 p. (2019; Zbl 1420.35236)] where rotational symmetry of the flow was assumed. In the present article, that result is extended by omitting the assumption of radial symmetry. For simplicity, the flow occurring in the annular region between concentric circular pipes where the outer boundary is deformable according to a prescribed deformation is considered. The authors prove the main result (Theorem 1) in which it is described how divergence free functions depend on the prescribed deformation mentioned above, obtaining an explicit velocity representation. The converse assertion to Theorem 1 is included in Corollary 2. An essential boundary condition for fluid structure interactions problems, where the radial component of the fluid velocity on the boundary coincides with the radial speed of movement of the free boundary can be found in Corollary 1. After this result, the authors present three different examples of divergence free velocity fields. The application of the above results to fluid structure interaction problems can be found in Theorem 2. As there is a connection between the speed of the moving boundary and the second velocity component, the dependence of the corresponding velocity fields to sequences of displacements and speeds of moving boundaries are investigated in this result. Finally, the authors conclude stating that achieving strong convergence in the space \(H^1(0,T;H^2((0,L)\times (0,2\pi)))\) requires stronger assumptions than those obtainable when considering linearly elastic cylindrical Koiter shell equations.