Anna Mazzucato : Boundary layers in incompressible fluid flow

Posted by Alexey Cheskidov , part of the Departmental Colloquium.

At

Feb. 10, 2012, 3 p.m.

In

SEO 636

Abstract

I will discuss recent results concerning the analysis of incompressible fluid flows at very low viscosity in the presence of walls. Dating back to the pioneering work of Prandtl, such flows are modeled as inviscid away from the walls, but near the walls viscosity effects cannot be neglected, which give rise to a boundary layer where the flow is potentially violent and vorticity is created. Understanding the viscous boundary layer is of fundamental importance in many physical phenomena, for instance it creates lift around flying objects. A rigorous analysis of boundary layers is still lacking except in special cases. I will present a few classes of flows where such analysis is possible.