On the existence, uniqueness and regularity of solutions of a viscoelastic Stokes problem modelling salt rocks

Abstract

A Stokes-type problem for a viscoelastic model of salt rocks is considered, and existence, uniqueness and regularity are investigated in the scale of $L^2$-based Sobolev spaces. The system is transformed into a generalized Stokes problem, and the proper conditions on the parameters of the model that guarantee that the system is uniformly elliptic are given. Under those conditions, existence, uniqueness and low-order regularity are obtained under classical regularity conditions on the data, while higher-order regularity is proved under less stringent conditions than classical ones. Explicit estimates for the solution in terms of the data are given accordingly.

Second version with very minor typographical revisions