The Galerkin boundary element method for transient Stokes flow

Since the fundamental solution for transient Stokes flow in three dimensions is complicated it is difficult to implement discretization methods for boundary integral formulations. We derive a representation of the Stokeslet and stresslet in terms of incomplete gamma functions and investigate the nature of the singularity of the single- and double layer potentials. Further, we give analytical formulas for the time integration and develop Galerkin schemes with tensor product piecewise polynomial ansatz functions. Numerical results demonstrate optimal convergence rates.