Stationary Flow Past a Semi-Infinite Flat Plate: Analytical and Numerical Evidence for a Symmetry-Breaking Solution

We consider the question of the existence of stationary solutions for the Navier Stokes equations describing the flow of a incompressible fluid past a semi-infinite flat plate at zero incidence angle. By using ideas from the theory of dynamical systems we analyze the vorticity equation for this problem and show that a symmetry-breaking term fits naturally into the downstream asymptotic expansion of a solution. Finally, in order to check that our asymptotic expressions can be completed to a symmetry-breaking solution of the Navier–Stokes equations we solve the problem numerically by using our asymptotic results to prescribe artificial boundary conditions for a sequence of truncated domains. The results of these numerical computations a clearly compatible with the existence of such a solution. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000). 76D05, 76D25, 76M10, 41A60, 35Q35 Supported in part by the Fonds National Suisse.