Fourier series and integral equation method for the exterior Stokes problem

The exterior Stokes problem between two parallel planes that are separated by a prismatic cylinder is extended to the interior of the prism by requiring the continuity of the velocity across the lateral faces. The well‐posedness of the exterior–interior problem is proved in suitable weighted Sobolev spaces. The solution is represented by Fourier series in the z‐variable. The Fourier coefficients, solutions of auxiliary two‐dimensional exterior–interior problems, are analyzed by viewing them as boundary integral equations of potential theory and global regularity of the densities, is established in weighted Sobolev spaces of traces. A boundary element method, with suitably refined mesh size, is implemented for the numerical treatment of the Fourier coefficients. This provides optimal convergent semi‐ and fully‐discrete spectral methods of Fourier–Galerkin type. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2008