Rapid time-decay and net force to the obstacles by the Stokes flow in exterior domains

Consider the nonstationary Stokes equations in exterior domains with the compact boundary . We show first that the solution decays like for all as . This decay rate is optimal in the sense that for some as occurs if and only if the net force exerted by the fluid on is zero. Received: 15 June 2000 / Published online: 18 June 2001