Abstract
The steady-state solutions to Navier-Stokes equations on a bounded domain
Ω⊂Rd,d=2,3, are locally exponentially stabilizable by a boundary closed-
loop feedback controller, acting on the boundary ∂Ω, in the Dirichlet boundary
conditions. The greatest challenge arises from a combination between the control
as acting on the boundary and the dimensionality d= 3. If d= 3, the non-linearity
imposes and dictates the requirement that stabilization must occur in the space
(H3
2+(Ω))3,>0, a high topological level. A first implication thereof is that, for
d= 3, the boundary feedback stabilizing controller must be infinite dimensional.
Moreover, it generally acts on the entire boundary ∂Ω. Instead, for d= 2, where the
topological level for stabilization is (H3
2−(Ω))2, the boundary feedback stabilizing
controller can be chosen to act on an arbitrarily small portion of the boundary.
Moreover, still for d= 2, it may even be finite dimensional, and this occurs if the
linearized operator is diagonalizable over its finite-dimensional unstable subspace.
In order to inject dissipation as to force local exponential stabilization of the
steady-state solutions, an Optimal Control Problem (OCP) with a quadratic cost
functional over an infinite time-horizon is introduced for the linearized N-S equa-
tions. As a result, the same Riccati-based, optimal boundary feedback controller
which is obtained in the linearized OCP is then selected and implemented also on
the full N-S system. For d= 3, the OCP falls definitely outside the boundaries
of established optimal control theory for parabolic systems with boundary con-
trols, in that the combined index of unboundedness—between the unboundedness
of the boundary control operator and the unboundedness of the penalization or
observation operator—is strictly larger than 3
2, as expressed in terms of fractional
powers of the free-dynamics operator. In contrast, established (and rich) optimal
control theory [L-T.2] of boundary control parabolic problems and corresponding
algebraic Riccati theory requires a combined index of unboundedness strictly less
than 1. An additional preliminary serious difficulty to overcome lies at the outset of
the program, in establishing that the present highly non-standard OCP—with the
aforementioned high level of unboundedness in control and observation operators
and subject, moreover, to the additional constraint that the controllers be pointwise
tangential—be non-empty; that is, it satisfies the so-called Finite Cost Condition
[L-T.2].
2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary: 76D05, 7655, 35B40, 35Q30.
Key words and phrases. Navier-Stokes equations, boundary feedback stabilization, optimal
control, Riccati equation, steady-state solution, boundary feedback controller.
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