Backward and non-local problems for the Rayleigh-Stokes equation

The Fourier method is used to find conditions on the right-hand side and on the initial data in the Rayleigh-Stokes problem, which ensure the existence and uniqueness of the solution. Then, in the Rayleigh-Stokes problem, instead of the initial condition, consider the non-local condition: $u(x,T)=\beta u(x,0)+\varphi(x)$, where $\beta$ is either zero or one. It is well known that if $\beta=0$, then the corresponding problem, called the backward problem, is ill-posed in the sense of Hadamard, i.e. a small change in $u(x,T)$ leads to large changes in the initial data. Nevertheless, we will show that if we consider sufficiently smooth current information, then the solution exists and it is unique and stable. It will also be shown that if $\beta=1$, then the corresponding non-local problem is well-posed and coercive type inequalities are valid.Comment: 1

Conditional and unconditional nonlinear stability in fluid dynamics

In this thesis we examine some of the interesting aspects of stability for some convection problems. Specifically, the first part of the thesis deals with the Bénard problem for various Non-Newtonian fluids, whereas the second part develops a stability analysis for convection in a porous medium. The work on stability for viscoelastic fluids includes nonlinear stability analyses for the second grade fluid, the generalised second grade fluid, the fluid of dipolar type and the fluid of third grade. It is worth remarking that throughout the work the viscosity is supposed to be any given function of temperature, with the first derivative bounded above by a positive constant. The connection between the two parts of the thesis is made through the method used to approach the nonlinear stability analysis, namely the energy method. It is shown in the introductory chapter how this method works and what are its advantages over the linear analysis. Nonlinear stability results established in both Part I and Part II are the best one can get for the considered physical situations. Different choices of energy have been considered in order to achieve conditional or unconditional nonlinear stability results

Thermal convection with a Cattaneo heat flux model

The problem of thermal convection in a layer of viscous incompressible fluid is analysed. The heat flux law is taken to be one of Cattaneo type. The time derivative of the heat flux is allowed to be a material derivative, or a general objective derivative. It is shown that only one objective derivative leads to results consistent with what one expects in real life. This objective derivative leads to a Cattaneo–Christov theory, and the results for linear instability theory are in agreement with those for a material derivative. It is further shown that none of the theories allow a standard nonlinear, energy stability analysis. A further heat flux due to P.M. Mariano is added and then an analysis is performed for stationary convection, oscillatory convection, and fully nonlinear theory. For the material derivative case, the analysis proceeds and global nonlinear stability is achieved. For Cattaneo–Christov theory, it appears necessary to add a regularization term in the equation for the heat flux, and even then the analysis only works in two space dimensions, and is conditional upon the size of the initial data. For the three-dimensional situation, it is shown how a nonlinear stability analysis may be achieved with a Navier–Stokes–Voigt fluid rather than a Navier–Stokes one