  In our previous paper [12] (Rev. Math. Phys. 16, 383-420 (2004)), a general
framework was outlined to treat the approximate solutions of semilinear
evolution equations; more precisely, a scheme was presented to infer from an
approximate solution the existence (local or global in time) of an exact
solution, and to estimate their distance. In the first half of the present work
the abstract framework of \cite{uno} is extended, so as to be applicable to
evolutionary PDEs whose nonlinearities contain derivatives in the space
variables. In the second half of the paper this extended framework is applied
to theincompressible Navier-Stokes equations, on a torus T^d of any dimension.
In this way a number of results are obtained in the setting of the Sobolev
spaces H^n(T^d), choosing the approximate solutions in a number of different
ways. With the simplest choices we recover local existence of the exact
solution for arbitrary data and external forces, as well as global existence
for small data and forces. With the supplementary assumption of exponential
decay in time for the forces, the same decay law is derived for the exact
solution with small (zero mean) data and forces. The interval of existence for
arbitrary data, the upper bounds on data and forces for global existence, and
all estimates on the exponential decay of the exact solution are derived in a
fully quantitative way (i.e., giving the values of all the necessary constants;
this makes a difference with most of the previous literature). Nextly, the
Galerkin approximate solutions are considered and precise, still quantitative
estimates are derived for their H^n distance from the exact solution; these are
global in time for small data and forces (with exponential time decay of the
above distance, if the forces decay similarly).
