Homogenisation of the Stokes equations for evolving microstructure

Abstract

We consider the homogenisation of the Stokes equations in a porous medium which is evolving in time. At the interface of the pore space and the solid part, we prescribe an inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition, which enables to model a no-slip boundary condition at the evolving boundary. We pass rigorously to the homogenisation limit with the two-scale transformation method. In order to derive uniform a priori estimates, we show a Korn-type inequality for the two-scale transformation method and construct a family of ε-scaled operators div −1 ε , which are right-inverse to the corresponding divergences. The homogenisation result is a new version of Darcy's law. It features a time-and space-dependent permeability tensor, which accounts for the local pore structure, and a macroscopic compressibility condition, which induces a new source term for the pressure. In the case of a no-slip boundary condition at the interface, this source term relates to the change of the local pore volume.