For strong solutions of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in bounded domains with velocity specified at the boundary, we establish the unconditional stability and convergence of discretization schemes that decouple the updates of pressure and velocity through explicit time stepping for pressure. These schemes require no solution of stationary Stokes systems, nor any compatibility between velocity and pressure spaces to ensure an inf-sup condition, and are representative of a class of highly efficient computational methods that have recently emerged. The proofs are simple, based upon a new, sharp estimate for the commutator of the Laplacian and Helmholtz projection operators. This allows us to treat an unconstrained formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations as a perturbed diffusion equation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This article studies the structure and its evolution of incompressible flows with the anti-symmetry using a combination of rigorous analysis and numerical simulations, with an application to an example of oceanic flow. In particular, necessary and sufficient conditions for 2D divergence-free vector fields with anti-symmetry are obtained, and a detailed numerical simulation for a simplified model of Marsigli oceanic flow is provided to explore and verify the structure and its transitions of the flow. It is expected that the study will lead to useful insights to the understanding of the flow dynamics from both the mathematical and physical points of view.

We consider the vorticity-stream formulation of axisymmetric incompressible ows and its equivalence with the primitive formulation. It is shown that, to characterize the regularity of a divergence free axisymmetric vector eld in terms of the swirling components, an extra set of pole condition is necessary to give a full description of the regularity. In addition, smooth solutions up to the axis of rotation gives rise to smooth solutions of primitive formulation in the case of Navier-Stokes equations, but not the Euler equations. We also establish proper weak formulations and show its equivalence to Leray's solutions.

We present a simple proof on the formation of flocking in the F. Cucker and S. Smale system [Jpn. J. Math. (3) 2, No. 1, 197–227 (2007; Zbl 1166.92323)] based on the explicit construction of a Lyapunov functional. Our results also provide a unified condition on the initial states in which the exponential convergence to the flocking state will occur. For large particle systems, we give a rigorous justification for the mean-field limit from the many particle Cucker-Smale system to the Vlasov equation with flocking dissipation as the number of particles goes to infinity.

We study a semi-implicit time-difference scheme for magnetohydrodynamics of a viscous and resistive incompressible fluid in a bounded smooth domain with a perfectly conducting boundary. In the scheme, the velocity and magnetic fields are updated by solving simple Helmholtz equations. Pressure is treated explicitly in time, by solving Poisson equations corresponding to a recently de- veloped formula for the Navier-Stokes pressure involving the commutator of Laplacian and Leray projection operators. We prove stability of the time-difference scheme, and deduce a local-time well- posedness theorem for MHD dynamics extended to ignore the divergence-free constraint on velocity and magnetic fields. These fields are divergence-free for all later time if they are initially so.