Functional inequalities and strong Lyapunov functionals for free surface flows in fluid dynamics

Abstract

This paper is motivated by the study of Lyapunov functionals for four equations describing free surface flows in fluid dynamics: the Hele-Shaw and Mullins-Sekerka equations together with their lubrication approximations, the Boussinesq and thin-film equations. We identify new Lyapunov functionals, including some which decay in a convex manner (these are called strong Lyapunov functionals). For the Hele-Shaw equation and the Mullins-Sekerka equation, we prove that the $L^2$-norm of the free surface elevation and the area of the free surface are Lyapunov functionals, together with parallel results for the thin-film and Boussinesq equations. The proofs combine exact identities for the dissipation rates with functional inequalities. For the thin-film and Boussinesq equations, we introduce a Sobolev inequality of independent interest which revisits some known results and exhibits strong Lyapunov functionals. For the Hele-Shaw and Mullins-Sekerka equations, we introduce a functional which controls the $L^2$-norm of three-half spatial derivative. Under a mild smallness assumption on the initial data, we show that the latter quantity is also a Lyapunov functional for the Hele-Shaw equation, implying that the area functional is a strong Lyapunov functional. Precise lower bounds for the dissipation rates are established, showing that these Lyapunov functionals are in fact entropies. Other quantities are also studied such as Lebesgue norms or the Boltzmann's entropy.