Nernst-Planck-Navier-Stokes Systems far from Equilibrium

We consider ionic electrodiffusion in fluids, described by the Nernst-Planck-Navier-Stokes system. We prove that the system has global smooth solutions for arbitrary smooth data in bounded domains with a smooth boundary in three space dimensions, in the following situations. We consider: a arbitrary positive Dirichlet boundary conditions for the ionic concentrations, arbitrary Dirichlet boundary conditions for the potential, arbitrary positive initial concentrations, and arbitrary regular divergence-free initial velocities. Global regularity holds for any positive, possibly different diffusivities of the ions, in the case of two ionic species, coupled to Stokes equations for the fluid. The result also holds in the case of Navier-Stokes coupling, if the velocity is regular. The same global smoothness of solutions is proved to hold for arbitrarily many ionic species as well, but in that case we require all their diffusivities to be the same.

Automated summary

The Nernst-Planck-Navier-Stokes system has global smooth solutions in bounded domains with smooth boundaries in three space dimensions. The solutions remain smooth for arbitrary positive Dirichlet boundary conditions for ionic concentrations, arbitrary Dirichlet boundary conditions for potential, arbitrary positive initial concentrations, and arbitrary regular divergence-free initial velocities. Global regularity is maintained when considering multiple ionic species with the same diffusivities.