Asymptotic behaviour of a Bingham fluid in thin layers

A nonlinear stationary model describing the behaviour of a Bingham fluid is considered in a thin layer in R-3. The limit problem obtained after transforming the original problem into one posed over a fixed reference domain and then letting e (the parameter representing the thickness of the layer) tend to zero is studied. Existence and uniqueness results and a lower-dimensional 'Binghamlike' constitutive law are obtained. An identical study of a two-dimensional problem yields a one-dimensional model prevalent in engineering literature. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.