On the existence of weak solutions for the steady Baldwin-Lomax model and generalizations

In this paper we consider the steady Baldwin-Lomax model, which is a rotational model proposed to describe turbulent flows at statistical equilibrium. The Baldwin-Lomax model is specifically designed to address the problem of a turbulent motion taking place in a bounded domain, with Dirichlet boundary conditions at solid boundaries. The main features of this model are the degeneracy of the operator at the boundary and a formulation in velocity/vorticity variables. The principal part of the operator is non-linear and it is degenerate, due to the presence (as a coefficient) of a power of the distance from the boundary: This fact makes the existence theory naturally set in the framework of appropriate weighted-Sobolev spaces.