On the Self-Propelled Motion of a Rigid Body in a Viscous Liquid and on the Attainability of Steady Symmetric Self-Propelled Motions

In this paper we study the motion of a self-propelled rigid body through a Navier-Stokes fluid that fills all the three-dimensional space exterior to it. We formulate the problem and prove the existence of a weak solution that is defined globally in time, provided that the net flux across the boundary, of the prescribed boundary values for the velocity, is zero. It is these prescribed boundary values that propel the body, and the body is free to rotate during its motion. In the special case of a body which is symmetric about an axis, and propelled by symmetric boundary values, we obtain strong solutions representing translational motions in the direction of the axis. Further, we prove that for small Reynolds numbers every steady solution with such axial symmetry is attainable as the limit, as time tends to infinity, of a strong nonsteady solution which starts from rest.