Existence and regularity of the solution of a mixed boundary value problem for the Keldysh equation with a nonlinear absorption term

The Keldysh equation is a more general form of the classic Tricomi equation from fluid dynamics. Its well-posedness and the regularity of its solution are interesting and important. The Keldysh equation is elliptic in y>0 and is degenerate at the line y=0 in R². Adding a special nonlinear absorption term, we study a nonlinear degenerate elliptic equation with mixed boundary conditions in a piecewise smooth domain—similar to the potential fluid shock reflection problem. By means of an elliptic regularization technique, a delicate a priori estimate and compact argument, we show that the solution of a mixed boundary value problem of the Keldysh equation is smooth in the interior and Lipschitz continuous up to the degenerate boundary under some conditions. We believe that this kind of regularity result for the solution will be rather useful.     

A probabilistic model associated with the pressureless gas dynamics

Using a method of stochastic perturbation of a Langevin system associated with the non-viscous Burgers equation we introduce a system of PDE that can be considered as a regularization of the pressureless gas dynamics describing sticky particles. By means of this regularization we describe how starting from smooth data a δ-singularity arises in the component of density. Namely, we find the asymptotics of solution at the point of the singularity formation as the parameter of stochastic perturbation tends to zero. Then we introduce a generalized solution in the sense of free particles (FP-solution) as a special limit of the solution to the regularized system. This solution corresponds to a medium consisting of non-interacting particles. The FP-solution is a bridging step to constructing solutions to the Riemann problem for the pressureless gas dynamics describing sticky particles. We analyze the difference in the behavior of discontinuous solutions for these two models and the relations between them. In our framework we obtain a unique entropy solution to the Riemann problem in 1D case.     

Degenerate two-phase incompressible flow III. Sharp error estimates

Summary. This is the third paper of a series in which we analyze mathematical properties and develop numerical methods for a degenerate elliptic-parabolic partial differential system which describes the flow of two incompressible, immiscible fluids in porous media. In this paper we consider a finite element approximation for this system. The elliptic equation for the pressure and velocity is approximated by a mixed finite element method, while the degenerate parabolic equation for the saturation is approximated by a Galerkin finite element method. A fully discrete approximation is analyzed. Sharp error estimates in energy norms are obtained for this approximation. The error analysis does not use any regularization of the saturation equation; the error estimates are derived directly from the degenerate equation. Also, the analysis does not impose any restriction on the nature of degeneracy. Finally, it respects the minimal regularity on the solution of the differential system. Received March 9, 1998 / Revised version received July 17, 2000 / Published online May 30, 2001     

Existence and regularity of solution of mixed boundary value problem of a Busemann-equation with nonlinear absorb term

The Busemann-equation is a classical equation coming from fluid dynamics. The well-posed problem and regularity of solution of Busemann-equation with nonlinear term are interesting and important. The Busemann-equation is elliptic in y>0 and is degenerate at the line y=0 in R². With a special nonlinear absorb term, we study a nonlinear degenerate elliptic equation with mixed boundary conditions in a piecewise smooth domain. By means of elliptic regularization technique, a delicate prior estimate and compact argument, we show that the solution of mixed boundary value problem of Busemann-equation is smooth in the interior and Lipschitz continuous up to the degenerate boundary on some conditions. The result is better than the result of classical boundary degenerate elliptic equation.     

Positive solutions of quasilinear parabolic systems with Dirichlet boundary condition

Coupled systems for a class of quasilinear parabolic equations and the corresponding elliptic systems, including systems of parabolic and ordinary differential equations are investigated. The aim of this paper is to show the existence, uniqueness, and asymptotic behavior of time-dependent solutions. Also investigated is the existence of positive maximal and minimal solutions of the corresponding quasilinear elliptic system. The elliptic operators in both systems are allowed to be degenerate in the sense that the density-dependent diffusion coefficients Di(ui) may have the property Di(0)=0 for some or all i=1,…,N, and the boundary condition is ui=0. Using the method of upper and lower solutions, we show that a unique global classical time-dependent solution exists and converges to the maximal solution for one class of initial functions and it converges to the minimal solution for another class of initial functions; and if the maximal and minimal solutions coincide then the steady-state solution is unique and the time-dependent solution converges to the unique solution. Applications of these results are given to three model problems, including a scalar polynomial growth problem, a coupled system of polynomial growth problem, and a two component competition model in ecology.     

Finite element approximationof a nonlinear elliptic equation arising from bimaterial problemsin elastic-plastic mechanics

Summary. In [13], a nonlinear elliptic equation arising from elastic-plastic mechanics is studied. A well-posed weak formulation is established for the equation and some regularity results are further obtained for the solution of the boundary problem. In this work, the finite element approximation of this boundary problem is examined in the framework of [13]. Some error bounds for this approximation are initially established in an energy type quasi-norm, which naturally arises in degenerate problems of this type and proves very useful in deriving sharper error bounds for the finite element approximation of such problems. For sufficiently regular solutions optimal error bounds are then obtained for some fully degenerate cases in energy type norms. Received June 12, 1998 / Revised version received June 21, 1999 / Published online June 8, 2000     

Solution to the initial boundary-value problem for the regularized Buckley-Leverett system

We solve the initial boundary-value problem for the regularized Buckley-Leverett system, which describes the flow of two immiscible incompressible fluids through a porous medium. This is the case of the flow of water and oil in an oil reservoir. The system is formed by a hyperbolic equation and an elliptic equation coupled by a vector field which represents the total velocity of the mixture. The regularization is done by means of a filter acting on the velocity field. We consider the critical situation in which we inject pure water into the reservoir. At this critical value for the water saturation, the spatial components of the characteristics of the hyperbolic equation vanish and this motivates the use of a new technique to prove the achievement of the boundary condition for the hyperbolic equation. We treat the case of a horizontal plane reservoir. We also prove that the time averages of the saturation component of the solution converge to one, as the time interval increases indefinitely, for almost all points of the reservoir, with a rate of convergence which depends only on the flux function.     

A class of quasilinear degenerate elliptic problems

We establish the existence of solutions for a class of quasilinear degenerate elliptic equations. The equations in this class satisfy a structure condition which provides ellipticity in the interior of the domain, and degeneracy only on the boundary. Equations of transonic gas dynamics, for example, satisfy this property in the region of subsonic flow and are degenerate across the sonic surface. We prove that the solution is smooth in the interior of the domain but may exhibit singular behavior at the degenerate boundary. The maximal rate of blow-up at the degenerate boundary is bounded by the “degree of degeneracy” in the principal coefficients of the quasilinear elliptic operator. Our methods and results apply to the problems recently studied by several authors which include the unsteady transonic small disturbance equation, the pressure-gradient equations of the compressible Euler equations, and the singular quasilinear anisotropic elliptic problems, and extend to the class of equations which satisfy the structure condition, such as the shallow water equation, compressible isentropic two-dimensional Euler equations, and general two-dimensional nonlinear wave equations. Our study provides a general framework to analyze degenerate elliptic problems arising in the self-similar reduction of a broad class of two-dimensional Cauchy problems.     

The Riemann problem for the Leray-Burgers equation

For Riemann data consisting of a single decreasing jump, we find that the Leray regularization captures the correct shock solution of the inviscid Burgers equation. However, for Riemann data consisting of a single increasing jump, the Leray regularization captures an unphysical shock. This behavior can be remedied by considering the behavior of the Leray regularization with initial data consisting of an arbitrary mollification of the Riemann data. As we show, for this case, the Leray regularization captures the correct rarefaction solution of the inviscid Burgers equation. Additionally, we prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions of the Leray-regularized equation for a large class of discontinuous initial data. All of our results make extensive use of a reformulation of the Leray-regularized equation in the Lagrangian reference frame. The results indicate that the regularization works by bending the characteristics of the inviscid Burgers equation and thereby preventing their finite-time crossing.     

Nonlinear second order evolution inclusions with noncoercive viscosity term

In this paper we deal with a second order nonlinear evolution inclusion, with a nonmonotone, noncoercive viscosity term. Using a parabolic regularization (approximation) of the problem and a priori bounds that permit passing to the limit, we prove that the problem has a solution.     

Initial boundary value problem for a nonconservative system in elastodynamics

This article is concerned with the initial boundary value problem for a nonconservative system of hyperbolic equation appearing in elastodynamics in the space time domain x > 0, t > 0. The number of boundary conditions, to be prescribed at the boundary x = 0, depends on the number of characteristics entering the domain. Because our system is nonlinear, the characteristic speeds depends on the unknown and the direction of the characteristics curves are known apriori. As it is well known, the boundary condition has to be understood in a generalised way. One of the standard way is using vanishing viscosity method. We use this method to construct solution for a particular class of initial and boundary data, namely the initial and boundary datas that lie on the level sets of one of the Riemann invariants.     

The generalized Dirichlet–Neumann map for linear elliptic PDEs and its numerical implementation

A new approach for analyzing boundary value problems for linear and for integrable nonlinear PDEs was introduced in Fokas [A unified transform method for solving linear and certain nonlinear PDEs, Proc. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A 53 (1997) 1411–1443]. For linear elliptic PDEs, an important aspect of this approach is the characterization of a generalized Dirichlet to Neumann map: given the derivative of the solution along a direction of an arbitrary angle to the boundary, the derivative of the solution perpendicularly to this direction is computed without solving on the interior of the domain. This is based on the analysis of the so-called global relation, an equation which couples known and unknown components of the derivative on the boundary and which is valid for all values of a complex parameter k. A collocation-type numerical method for solving the global relation for the Laplace equation in an arbitrary bounded convex polygon was introduced in Fulton et al. [An analytical method for linear elliptic PDEs and its numerical implementation, J. Comput. Appl. Math. 167 (2004) 465–483]. Here, by choosing a different set of the “collocation points” (values for k), we present a significant improvement of the results in Fulton et al. [An analytical method for linear elliptic PDEs and its numerical implementation, J. Comput. Appl. Math. 167 (2004) 465–483]. The new collocation points lead to well-conditioned collocation methods. Their combination with sine basis functions leads to a collocation matrix whose diagonal blocks are point diagonal matrices yielding efficient implementation of iterative methods; numerical experimentation suggests quadratic convergence. The choice of Chebyshev basis functions leads to higher order convergence, which for regular polygons appear to be exponential.     

Sharp estimates for approximations to a nonlinear backward heat equation

A nonlinear backward heat problem for an infinite strip is considered. The problem is ill-posed in the sense that the solution (if it exists) does not depend continuously on the data. In this paper, we use the Fourier regularization method to solve the problem. Some sharp estimates of the error between the exact solution and its regularization approximation are given.     

Elliptic equations with BMO nonlinearity in Reifenberg domains

Given p∈[2,+∞), we obtain the global W1,p estimate for the weak solution of a boundary-value problem for an elliptic equation with BMO nonlinearity in a Reifenberg domain, assuming that the nonlinearity has sufficiently small BMO seminorm and that the boundary of the domain is sufficiently flat.     

Linear and nonlinear abstract equations with parameters

This paper focuses on nonlocal boundary value problems for linear and nonlinear abstract elliptic equations in Banach spaces. Here equations and boundary conditions contain certain parameters. The uniform separability of the linear problem and the existence and uniqueness of maximal regular solution of nonlinear problem are obtained in L_p spaces. For linear case the discreteness of spectrum of corresponding parameter dependent differential operator is obtained. The behavior of solution when the parameter approaches zero and its smoothness with respect to the parameter is established. Moreover, we show the estimate for analytic semigroups in terms of interpolation spaces. This fact can be used to obtain maximal regularity properties for abstract boundary value problems.     

On a system of partial differential equations of Monge-Kantorovich type

We consider a system of PDEs of Monge-Kantorovich type arising from models in granular matter theory and in electrodynamics of hard superconductors. The existence of a solution of such system (in a regular open domain Ω⊂Rn), whose construction is based on an asymmetric Minkowski distance from the boundary of Ω, was already established in [G. Crasta, A. Malusa, The distance function from the boundary in a Minkowski space, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., submitted for publication]. In this paper we prove that this solution is essentially unique. A fundamental tool in our analysis is a new regularity result for an elliptic nonlinear equation in divergence form, which is of some interest by itself.     

Existence and uniqueness analysis of a detached shock problem for the potential flow

We study a problem for two-dimensional steady potential and isentropic Euler equations in a bounded domain, where an artificial detached shock interacts with a wedge. Using the stream function, we obtain a free boundary problem for the subsonic state and the detached artificial shock curve and we prove that such configuration admits a unique solution in certain weighted Hölder spaces. The proof is based on various Hölder and Schauder estimates for second-order elliptic equations and fixed point theorems. Moreover, we pose an energy principle and remark that the physical attached shock is the minimizer of the energy functional.     

Superlinear problems without Ambrosetti and Rabinowitz growth condition

Superlinear elliptic boundary value problems without Ambrosetti and Rabinowitz growth condition are considered. Existence of nontrivial solution result is established by combining some arguments used by Struwe and Tarantello and Schechter and Zou (also by Wang and Wei). Firstly, by using the mountain pass theorem due to Ambrosetti and Rabinowitz is constructed a solution for almost every parameter λ by varying the parameter λ. Then, it is considered the continuation of the solutions.     

Multiple constant sign and nodal solutions for nonlinear elliptic equations with the p-Laplacian

We consider a nonlinear elliptic equation driven by the p-Laplacian with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Using variational techniques combined with the method of upper-lower solutions and suitable truncation arguments, we establish the existence of at least five nontrivial solutions. Two positive, two negative and a nodal (sign-changing) solution. Our framework of analysis incorporates both coercive and p-superlinear problems. Also the result on multiple constant sign solutions incorporates the case of concave-convex nonlinearities.     

Existence and approximated results of solutions for a class of nonlocal elliptic variational-hemivariational inequalities

In this paper, we consider the regularization of a class of elliptic variational-hemivariational inequalities driven by the fractional Laplace operator. First, we demonstrate characterizations of nonlocal elliptic variational-hemivariational inequalities. Next, we provide coercivity conditions that guarantee the existence and uniqueness of solution. Finally, by virtue of the so-called Browder–Tikhonov regularization method, we introduce a strongly convergent approximation procedure for the considered nonlocal problems considered without any coercivity condition.