NONSTATIONARY STOKES FLOW PAST AN OBSTACLE

A class of nonstationary solutions of the Stokes equations is studied whose behavior at infinity is merely required to be similar to that of stationary solutions which possess a finite Dirichlet integral. The purpose is to provide a natural solution class for the initial boundary value problem in the case of an exterior domain, to treat existence and uniqueness questions within this class, and finally to prove the convergence of nonstationary solutions to stationary ones as time t approaches infinity .