Regularity results in 2D fluid–structure interaction

We study the interaction of an incompressible fluid in two dimensions with an elastic structure yielding the moving boundary of the physical domain. The displacement of the structure is described by a linear viscoelastic beam equation. Our main result is the existence of a unique global strong solution. Previously, only the ideal case of a flat reference geometry was considered such that the structure can only move in vertical direction. We allow for a general geometric set-up, where the structure can even occupy the complete boundary. Our main tool—being of independent interest—is a maximal regularity estimate for the steady Stokes system in domains with minimal boundary regularity. In particular, we can control the velocity field in W^{2 , 2} in terms of a forcing in L² provided the boundary belongs roughly to W^{3 / 2 , 2}. This is applied to the momentum equation in the moving domain (for a fixed time) with the material derivative as right-hand side. Since the moving boundary belongs a priori only to the class W^{2 , 2}, known results do not apply here as they require a C²-boundary.