Singular limit for a nonlinear parabolic equation with terms concentrating on the boundary

We analyze the asymptotic behavior of the attractors of a parabolic problem when some reaction and potential terms are concentrated in a neighborhood of a portion Γ of the boundary and this neighborhood shrinks to Γ as a parameter ε goes to zero. We prove that the family of attractors is upper continuous at the ε=0.     

Cascades of Hopf bifurcations from boundary delay

We consider a 1-dimensional reaction-diffusion equation with nonlinear boundary conditions of logistic type with delay. We deal with non-negative solutions and analyze the stability behavior of its unique positive equilibrium solution, which is given by the constant function u≡1. We show that if the delay is small, this equilibrium solution is asymptotically stable, similar as in the case without delay. We also show that, as the delay goes to infinity, this equilibrium becomes unstable and undergoes a cascade of Hopf bifurcations. The structure of this cascade will depend on the parameters appearing in the equation. This equation shows some dynamical behavior that differs from the case where the nonlinearity with delay is in the interior of the domain.     

Positive solutions of quasilinear parabolic systems with nonlinear boundary conditions

The aim of this paper is to investigate the existence, uniqueness, and asymptotic behavior of solutions for a coupled system of quasilinear parabolic equations under nonlinear boundary conditions, including a system of quasilinear parabolic and ordinary differential equations. Also investigated is the existence of positive maximal and minimal solutions of the corresponding quasilinear elliptic system as well as the uniqueness of a positive steady-state solution. 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. Our approach to the problem is by the method of upper and lower solutions and its associated monotone iterations. It is shown that the time-dependent solution 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 porous medium type of problem, a heat-transfer problem, and a two-component competition model in ecology. These applications illustrate some very interesting distinctive behavior of the time-dependent solutions between density-independent and density-dependent diffusions.     

A nonlinear elliptic problem with terms concentrating in the boundary

In this paper, we investigate the behavior of a family of steady‐state solutions of a nonlinear reaction diffusion equation when some reaction and potential terms are concentrated in a ε‐neighborhood of a portion Γ of the boundary. We assume that this ε‐neighborhood shrinks to Γ as the small parameter ε goes to zero. Also, we suppose the upper boundary of this ε‐strip presents a highly oscillatory behavior. Our main goal here was to show that this family of solutions converges to the solutions of a limit problem, a nonlinear elliptic equation that captures the oscillatory behavior. Indeed, the reaction term and concentrating potential are transformed into a flux condition and a potential on Γ, which depends on the oscillating neighborhood. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semilinear parabolic problems in thin domains with a highly oscillatory boundary

In this paper, we study the behavior of the solutions of nonlinear parabolic problems posed in a domain that degenerates into a line segment (thin domain) which has an oscillating boundary. We combine methods from linear homogenization theory for reticulated structures and from the theory on nonlinear dynamics of dissipative systems to obtain the limit problem for the elliptic and parabolic problems and analyze the convergence properties of the solutions and attractors of the evolutionary equations.     

Viscosity solutions of a class of degenerate quasilinear parabolic equations with Dirichlet boundary condition

This paper is concerned with viscosity solutions for a class of degenerate quasilinear parabolic equations in a bounded domain with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition. The equation under consideration arises from a number of practical model problems including reaction–diffusion processes in a porous medium. The degeneracy of the problem appears on the boundary and possibly in the interior of the domain. The goal of this paper is to establish some comparison properties between viscosity upper and lower solutions and to show the existence of a continuous viscosity solution between them. An application of the above results is given to a porous-medium type of reaction–diffusion model which demonstrates some distinctive properties of the solution when compared with the corresponding semilinear problem.     

Finite difference reaction diffusion equations with nonlinear boundary conditions

This article is concerned with numerical solutions of finite difference systems of reaction diffusion equations with nonlinear internal and boundary reaction functions. The nonlinear reaction functions are of general form and the finite difference systems are for both time-dependent and steady-state problems. For each problem a unified system of nonlinear equations is treated by the method of upper and lower solutions and its associated monotone iterations. This method leads to a monotone iterative scheme for the computation of numerical solutions as well as an existence-comparison theorem for the corresponding finite difference system. Special attention is given to the dynamical property of the time-dependent solution in relation to the steady-state solutions. Application is given to a heat-conduction problem where a nonlinear radiation boundary condition obeying the Boltzmann law of cooling is considered. This application demonstrates a bifurcation property of two steady-state solutions, and determines the dynamic behavior of the time-dependent solution. Numerical results for the heat-conduction problem, including a test problem with known analytical solution, are presented to illustrate the various theoretical conclusions. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On a class of parabolic equations with nonlocal boundary conditions

In this paper we study a class of parabolic equations subject to a nonlocal boundary condition. The problem is a generalized model for a theory of ion-diffusion in channels. By using energy method, we first derive some a priori estimates for solutions and then prove that the problem has a unique global solution. Moreover, under some assumptions on the nonlinear boundary condition, it is shown that the solution blows up in finite time. Finally, the long-time behavior of solution to a linear problem is also studied in the paper.     

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.     

Time delayed parabolic systems with coupled nonlinear boundary conditions

The aim of this paper is to show the existence and uniqueness of a solution for a system of time-delayed parabolic equations with coupled nonlinear boundary conditions. The time delays are of discrete type which may appear in the reaction function as well as in the boundary function. The approach to the problem is by the method of upper and lower solutions for nonquasimonotone functions.

     

Theoretical analysis of a model of the thermal boundary layer with drag

For solutions of a system of degenerate quasilinear parabolic equations we prove some interior Schauder estimates and use them to establish an existence theorem for solutions of the problem of extending the thermal boundary layer of a compressible fluid in a magnetic field.     

Quasilinear parabolic and elliptic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions

This paper is concerned with a class of quasilinear parabolic and elliptic equations in a bounded domain with both Dirichlet and nonlinear Neumann boundary conditions. The equation under consideration may be degenerate or singular depending on the property of the diffusion coefficient. The consideration of the class of equations is motivated by some heat-transfer problems where the heat capacity and thermal conductivity are both temperature dependent. The aim of the paper is to show the existence and uniqueness of a global time-dependent solution of the parabolic problem, existence of maximal and minimal steady-state solutions of the elliptic problem, including conditions for the uniqueness of a solution, and the asymptotic behavior of the time-dependent solution in relation to the steady-state solutions. Applications are given to some heat-transfer problems and an extended logistic reaction–diffusion equation.     

Best possible estimates of solutions to the Robin boundary value problem for linear elliptic nondivergence second-order equations in a neighborhood of the conical point

We investigate the behavior of strong solutions to the Robin boundary value problem for linear elliptic nondivergence second-order equations in a neighborhood of the boundary conical point. We establish precise exponent of the solution decreasing rate.     

Positive solutions and dynamics of a finite difference reaction–diffusion system

We investigate the dynamics and methods of computation for some nonlinear finite difference systems that are the discretized equations of a time-dependent and a steady-state reaction–diffusion problem. The formulation of the discrete equations for the time-dependent problem is based on the implicit method for parabolic equations, and the computational algorithm is based on the method of monotone iterations using upper and lower solutions as the initial iterations. The monotone iterative method yields improved upper and lower bounds of the solution in each iteration, and the sequence of iterations converges monotonically to a solution for both the time-dependent and the steady-state problems. An important consequence of this method is that it leads to a bifurcation point that determines the dynamic behavior of the time-dependent problem in relation to the corresponding steady-state problem. This bifurcation point also determines whether the steady-state problem has one or two non-negative solutions, and is explicitly given in terms of the physical parameters of the system and the type of boundary conditions. Numerical results are presented for both the time-dependent and the steady-state problems under various boundary conditions, including a test problem with known analytical solution. These numerical results exhibit the predicted dynamic behavior of the time-dependent solution given by the theoretical analysis. Also discussed are the numerical stability of the computational algorithm and the convergence of the finite difference solution to the corresponding continuous solution of the reaction–diffusion problem. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Asymptotics for a free boundary model in price formation

We study the asymptotics for a large time of solutions to a one-dimensional parabolic evolution equation with non-standard measure-valued right hand side, that involves derivatives of the solution computed at a free boundary point. The problem is a particular case of a mean-field free boundary model proposed by Lasry-Lions on price formation and dynamic equilibria.The main step in the proof is based on the fact that the free boundary disappears in the linearized problem, thus it can be treated as a perturbation through semigroup theory. This requires a delicate choice for the function spaces since higher regularity is needed near the free boundary. We show global existence for solutions with initial data in a small neighborhood of any equilibrium point, and exponential decay towards a stationary state. Moreover, the family of equilibria of the equation is stable, as follows from center manifold theory.     

Large time behavior of solutions to parabolic equations with Neumann boundary conditions

In this paper we are interested in the large time behavior as t→+∞ of the viscosity solutions of parabolic equations with nonlinear Neumann type boundary conditions in connection with ergodic boundary problems which have been recently studied by Barles and the author in [G. Barles, F. Da Lio, On the boundary ergodic problem for fully nonlinear equations in bounded domains with general nonlinear Neumann boundary conditions, Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré Anal. Non Linèaire 22 (5) (2005) 521-541].     

On the existence of global solutions of a system of semilinear parabolic equations with nonlinear nonlocal boundary conditions

We establish conditions for the existence and nonexistence of global solutions of an initial–boundary value problem for a system of semilinear parabolic equations with nonlinear nonlocal boundary conditions. The results depend on the behavior of variable coefficients as t→∞.     

Asymptotic behavior of solutions of a free boundary problem modeling multi-layer tumor growth in presence of inhibitor

In this paper we study well-posedness and asymptotic behavior of solution of a free boundary problem modeling the growth of multi-layer tumors under the action of an external inhibitor. We first prove that this problem is locally well-posed in little Hölder spaces. Next we investigate asymptotic behavior of the solution. By computing the spectrum of the linearized problem and using the linearized stability theorem, we give the rigorous analysis of stability and instability of all stationary flat solutions under the non-flat perturbations. The method used in proving these results is first to reduce the free boundary problem to a differential equation in a Banach space, and next use the abstract well-posedness and geometric theory for parabolic differential equations in Banach spaces to make the analysis.     

Method of controlled models in the problem of reconstructing a boundary input

The problem of dynamic reconstruction of boundary controls in a nonlinear parabolic equation is considered. In the case of a control concentrated in the Neumann boundary conditions, a solution algorithm is described, which is stable with respect to the information noise and calculation errors. The algorithm is based on the construction of feedback-controlled auxiliary models.     

Incomplete quenching in a system of heat equations coupled at the boundary

In this paper we find a possible continuation for quenching solutions to a system of heat equations coupled at the boundary condition. This system exhibits simultaneous and non-simultaneous quenching. For non-simultaneous quenching our continuation is a solution of a parabolic problem with Neumann boundary conditions. We also give some results for simultaneous quenching and present some numerical experiments that suggest that the approximations are not uniformly bounded in this case.