Subsonic flows past a profile with a vortex line at the trailing edge

Abstract

We established the existence, uniqueness and stability of subsonic flows past an airfoil with a vortex line at the trailing edge. Such a flow pattern is governed by the two dimensional steady compressible Euler equations. The vortex line attached to the trailing edge is a contact discontinuity for the Euler system and is treated as a free boundary. The problem is formulated and solved by using the implicit function theorem. The main difficulties are due to the fitting of the vortex line with the profile at the trailing edge and the possible subtle instability of the vortex line at the far field. Suitable choices of the weights and elaborate barrier functions are found to deal with such difficulties.