Including previously unpublished, original research material, this comprehensive book analyses topics of fundamental importance in theoretical fluid mechanics. The five papers appearing in this volume are centred around the mathematical theory of the Navier-Stokes equations (incompressible and compressible) and certain selected non-Newtonian modifications.

As a satellite conference of the 1998 International Mathematical Congress and part of the celebration of the 650th anniversary of Charles University, the Partial Differential Equations Theory and Numerical Solution conference was held in Prague in August, 1998. With its rich scientific program, the conference provided an opportunity for almost 200 participants to gather and discuss emerging directions and recent developments in partial differential equations (PDEs). This volume comprises the Proceedings of that conference. In it, leading specialists in partial differential equations, calculus of variations, and numerical analysis present up-to-date results, applications, and advances in numerical methods in their fields. Conference organizers chose the contributors to bring together the scientists best able to present a complex view of problems, starting from the modeling, passing through the mathematical treatment, and ending with numerical realization. The applications discussed include fluid dynamics, semiconductor technology, image analysis, motion analysis, and optimal control. The importance and quantity of research carried out around the world in this field makes it imperative for researchers, applied mathematicians, physicists and engineers to keep up with the latest developments. With its panel of international contributors and survey of the recent ramifications of theory, applications, and numerical methods, Partial Differential Equations: Theory and Numerical Solution provides a convenient means to that end.

The five papers collected in this volume are the content of a series of lectures delivered at the Second Winter School in Fluid Dynamics held in Paseky, Czech Republic, from November 29 to December 4 1992, concerning different fields in theoretical fluid mechanics. The lectures present recent results of the authors' investigations and the majority of the contributions are original results which are not published elsewhere. Specifically, Galdi studies the two-dimensional exterior problem for the steady-state Navier-Stokes equations and Matsumura deals with some basic questions related to existence and stability of one-dimensional flow of compressible fluids. Both papers represent a difficult mathematical approach to solving deep problems. The paper by Girault furnishes a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the Stokes problem in exterior domains that has important consequences on numerical analysis. Litvinov's paper is dedicated to existence theory for a class of equations describing the motions of certain non classical fluids. Finally, the contribution from Rajagopal is a detailed and updated review of non-Newtonian fluid mechanics with emphasis on the different types of constitutive equations.

This monograph provides a concise treatment of the theory of nonlinear evolutionary partial differential equations. For scalar hyperbolic conservation laws, the well posedness of the initial problem in the whole space as well as the initial boundary value problem in bounded domains is treated. Further, one of the first rigorous mathematical treatments of a class of non-Newtonian fluids is given. The new results, obtained here for both problems, have applications to many rapidly developing areas of physics, biology and mechanical engineering. Weak and Measure-valued Solutions to Evolutionary PDEs will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in mathematics, theoretical physics and engineering. In particular, engineers and physicists involved in fluid mechanics research, and mathematicians interested in PDEs will value this monograph.