Qualitative Behaviour of Solutions for the Two-Phase Navier-Stokes Equations with Surface Tension

Abstract

The two-phase free boundary value problem for the isothermal Navier-Stokes system is studied for general bounded geometries in absence of phase transitions, external forces and boundary contacts. It is shown that the problem is well-posed in an Lp-setting, and that it generates a local semiflow on the induced phase manifold. If the phases are connected, the set of equilibria of the system forms a (n+1)-dimensional manifold, each equilibrium is stable, and it is shown that global solutions which do not develop singularities converge to an equilibrium as time goes to infinity. The latter is proved by means of the energy functional combined with the generalized principle of linearized stability.