Navier and Stokes meet Poincar\' e and Dulac

This paper surveys various precise (long-time) asymptotic results for the solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations with potential forces in bounded domains. It turns out that that the asymptotic expansion leads surprisingly to a Poincar' e-Dulac normal form of the Navier-Stokes equations. We will also discuss some related results and a few open issues.