The Navier–Stokes Equations Under a Unilateral Boundary Condition of Signorini’s Type

Abstract

We propose a new outflow boundary condition, a unilateral condition of Signorini’s type, for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The condition is a generalization of the standard free-traction condition. Its variational formulation is given by a variational inequality. We also consider a penalty approximation, a kind of the Robin condition, to deduce a suitable formulation for numerical computations. Under those conditions, we can obtain energy inequalities that are key features for numerical computations. The main contribution of this paper is to establish the well-posedness of the Navier–Stokes equations under those boundary conditions. Particularly, we prove the unique existence of strong solutions of Ladyzhenskaya’s class using the standard Galerkin’s method. For the proof of the existence of pressures, however, we offer a new method of analysis.