Time-periodic flow of a viscous liquid past a body

We investigate the existence, uniqueness and regularity of time-periodic solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations governing the flow of a viscous liquid past a three-dimensional body moving with a time-periodic translational velocity. The net motion of the body over a full time-period is assumed to be non-zero. In this case, the appropriate linearization is the time-periodic Oseen system in a three-dimensional exterior domain. A priori L^q estimates are established for this linearization. Based on these “maximal regularity” estimates, the existence and uniqueness of smooth solutions to the fully nonlinear Navier-Stokes problem is obtained by the contraction mapping principle.