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Newton's problem of the body of minimum mean resistance
A. Yu. Plakhov University of Aveiro
Abstract:
Consider a body
$\Omega$ at rest in
$d$-dimensional Euclidean space
and a homogeneous flow of particles falling on it with unit velocity
$v$. The particles do not interact and they collide with the body perfectly elastically. Let
$\mathscr R_\Omega(v)$ be the resistance of the body to the flow. The problem of the body of minimum resistance, which goes back to Newton, consists in the minimization of the quantity
$(\mathscr R_\Omega(v)\mid v)$ over a prescribed class of bodies.
Assume that one does not know in advance the direction
$v$ of the
flow or that one measures the resistance repeatedly for various
directions of
$v$. Of interest in these cases is the problem
of the minimization of the mean value of the resistance
$\widetilde{\mathscr R}(\Omega)
=\displaystyle\int_{S^{d-1}}(\mathscr R_\Omega(v)\mid v)\,dv$.
This problem is considered
$(\widetilde{\mathrm{P}}_d)$ in the class of bodies of volume 1 and
$(\widetilde{\mathrm{P}}{}_d^c)$ in the class of convex bodies of volume 1. The solution
of the convex problem
$\widetilde{\mathrm{P}}{}_d^c$ is the
$d$-dimensional ball. For
the non-convex 2-dimensional problem
$\widetilde{\mathrm{P}}_2$
the minimum value
$\widetilde{\mathscr R}(\Omega)$ is found with
accuracy
$0.61\%$. The proof of this estimate is carried out with the
use of a result related to the Monge problem of mass transfer, which
is also solved in this paper. This problem is as follows: find
$\displaystyle\inf_{T\in\mathscr T}\int_\Pi\mathrm{f}(\varphi,\tau;T(\varphi,\tau))\,d\mu(\varphi,\tau)$,
where
$\Pi=[-{\pi}/{2},{\pi}/{2}]\times [0,1]$,
$d\mu(\varphi,\tau)=\cos\varphi\,d\varphi\,d\tau$,
$\mathrm{f}(\varphi,\tau;\varphi',\tau')
=1+\cos(\varphi+\varphi')$, and
$\mathscr T$ is the set of one-to-one maps of
$\Pi$ onto itself preserving the measure
$\mu$.
Another problem under study is the minimization
of $\overline{\mathscr R}(\Omega)
=\displaystyle\int_{S^{d-1}}|\mathscr R_\Omega(v)|\,dv$.
The solution of the convex problem
$\overline{\mathrm P}{}_d^c$ and the estimate
for the non-convex 2-dimensional problem
$\overline{\mathrm P}_2$ obtained in this paper
are the same as for the problems
$\widetilde{\mathrm P}{}_d^c$
and
$\widetilde{\mathrm P}_2$.
UDC:
517.95
MSC: 49J10,
49Q10,
49Q20 Received: 11.11.2003
DOI:
10.4213/sm836