Existence and stability of steady compressible Navier-Stokes solutions on a finite interval with noncharacteristic boundary conditions

Abstract

We study existence and stability of steady solutions of the isentropic compressible Navier-Stokes equations on a finite interval with non characteristic boundary conditions, for general not necessarily small-amplitude data. We show that there exists a unique solution, about which the linearized spatial operator possesses (i) a spectral gap between neutral and growing/decaying modes, and (ii) an even number of nonstable eigenvalues ? (with a nonnegative real part). In the case that there are no nonstable eigenvalues, i.e., of spectral stability, we show this solution to be nonlinearly exponentially stable in H2 X H3. Using "Goodman-type" weighted energy estimates, we establish spectral stability for small-amplitude data. For large amplitude data, we obtain high-frequency stability, reducing stability investigations to a bounded frequency regime. On this remaining, bounded-frequency regime, we carry out a numerical Evans function study, with results again indicating universal stability of solutions.