Asymmetric equilibrium configurations of a body immersed in a 2D laminar flow

Abstract

We study the equilibrium configurations of a possibly asymmetric fluid-structure-interaction problem. The fluid is confined in a bounded planar channel and is governed by the stationary Navier-Stokes equations with laminar inflow and outflow. A body is immersed in the channel and is subject to both the lift force from the fluid and to some external elastic force. Asymmetry, which is motivated by natural models, and the possibly non-vanishing velocity of the fluid on the boundary of the channel require the introduction of suitable assumptions to prevent collisions of the body with the boundary. With these assumptions at hand, we prove that for sufficiently small inflow/outflow there exists a unique equilibrium configuration. Only if the inflow, the outflow and the body are all symmetric, the configuration is also symmetric. A model application is also discussed.