Identification of deformable droplets from boundary measurements: the case of non-stationary Stokes problem

Abstract

In this paper, we use asymptotic expansion of the velocity field to reconstruct small deformable droplets (i.e. their forms and locations) immersed in an incompressible Newtonian fluid. Here the fluid motion is assumed to be governed by the non-stationary linear Stokes system. Taking advantage of the smallness of the droplets, our asymptotic formula and identification methods extend those already derived for rigid inhomogeneity and for stationary Stokes system. Our derivations, based on dynamical boundary measurements, are rigorous and proved by involving the notion of viscous moment tensor VMT. The viability of our reconstruction approach is documented by numerical results.