Regularity and Asymptotic Behavior of Nonlinear Stefan Problems

We study the following nonlinear Stefan problem $$\left\{\begin{aligned}\!\!&u_t\,-\,d\Delta u = g(u) & &\quad{\rm for}\,x\,\in\,\Omega(t), t > 0, \\ & u = 0 \, {\rm and} u_t = \mu|\nabla_{x} u|^{2} &&\quad {\rm for}\,x\,\in\,\Gamma(t), t > 0, \\ &u(0, x) = u_{0}(x) &&\quad {\rm for}\,x\,\in\,\Omega_0,\end{aligned} \right.$$ where ${\Omega(t) \subset \mathbb{R}^{n}}$ ( ${n \geqq 2}$ ) is bounded by the free boundary ${\Gamma(t)}$ , with ${\Omega(0) = \Omega_0}$ , μ and d are given positive constants. The initial function u ₀ is positive in ${\Omega_0}$ and vanishes on ${\partial \Omega_0}$ . The class of nonlinear functions g(u) includes the standard monostable, bistable and combustion type nonlinearities. We show that the free boundary ${\Gamma(t)}$ is smooth outside the closed convex hull of ${\Omega_0}$ , and as ${t \to \infty}$ , either ${\Omega(t)}$ expands to the entire ${\mathbb{R}^n}$ , or it stays bounded. Moreover, in the former case, ${\Gamma(t)}$ converges to the unit sphere when normalized, and in the latter case, ${u \to 0}$ uniformly. When ${g(u) = au - bu^2}$ , we further prove that in the case ${\Omega(t)}$ expands to ${{\mathbb R}^n}$ , ${u \to a/b}$ as ${t \to \infty}$ , and the spreading speed of the free boundary converges to a positive constant; moreover, there exists ${\mu^* \geqq 0}$ such that ${\Omega(t)}$ expands to ${{\mathbb{R}}^n}$ exactly when ${\mu > \mu^*}$ .     

Global Compensated Compactness Theorem for General Differential Operators of First Order

Let A ₁(x, D) and A ₂(x, D) be differential operators of the first order acting on l-vector functions ${u= (u_1, \ldots, u_l)}$ in a bounded domain ${\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^{n}}$ with the smooth boundary ${\partial\Omega}$ . We assume that the H ¹-norm ${\|u\|_{H^{1}(\Omega)}}$ is equivalent to ${\sum_{i=1}^2\|A_iu\|_{L^2(\Omega)} + \|B_1u\|_{H^{\frac{1}{2}}(\partial\Omega)}}$ and ${\sum_{i=1}^2\|A_iu\|_{L^2(\Omega)} + \|B_2u\|_{H^{\frac{1}{2}}(\partial\Omega)}}$ , where B _i  = B _i (x, ν) is the trace operator onto ${\partial\Omega}$ associated with A _i (x, D) for i = 1, 2 which is determined by the Stokes integral formula (ν: unit outer normal to ${\partial\Omega}$ ). Furthermore, we impose on A ₁ and A ₂ a cancellation property such as ${A_1A_2^{\prime}=0}$ and ${A_2A_1^{\prime}=0}$ , where ${A^{\prime}_i}$ is the formal adjoint differential operator of A _i (i = 1, 2). Suppose that ${\{u_m\}_{m=1}^{\infty}}$ and ${\{v_m\}_{m=1}^{\infty}}$ converge to u and v weakly in ${L^2(\Omega)}$ , respectively. Assume also that ${\{A_{1}u_m\}_{m=1}^{\infty}}$ and ${\{A_{2}v_{m}\}_{m=1}^{\infty}}$ are bounded in ${L^{2}(\Omega)}$ . If either ${\{B_{1}u_m\}_{m=1}^{\infty}}$ or ${\{B_{2}v_m\}_{m=1}^{\infty}}$ is bounded in ${H^{\frac{1}{2}}(\partial\Omega)}$ , then it holds that ${\int_{\Omega}u_m\cdot v_m \,{\rm d}x \to \int_{\Omega}u\cdot v \,{\rm d}x}$ . We also discuss a corresponding result on compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary.     

On Formation of a Locally Self-Similar Collapse in the Incompressible Euler Equations

The paper addresses the question of the existence of a locally self-similar blow-up for the incompressible Euler equations. Several exclusion results are proved based on the L ^p -condition for velocity or vorticity and for a range of scaling exponents. In particular, in N dimensions if in self-similar variables ${u \in L^p}$ and ${u \sim \frac{1}{t^{\alpha/(1+\alpha)}}}$ , then the blow-up does not occur, provided ${\alpha > N/2}$ or ${-1 < \alpha \leq N\,/p}$ . This includes the L ³ case natural for the Navier–Stokes equations. For ${\alpha = N\,/2}$ we exclude profiles with asymptotic power bounds of the form ${ |y|^{-N-1+\delta} \lesssim |u(y)| \lesssim |y|^{1-\delta}}$ . Solutions homogeneous near infinity are eliminated, as well, except when homogeneity is scaling invariant.     

Hadamard Variational Formula for the Green’s Function of the Boundary Value Problem on the Stokes Equations

For every ${\varepsilon > 0}$ , we consider the Green’s matrix ${G_{\varepsilon}(x, y)}$ of the Stokes equations describing the motion of incompressible fluids in a bounded domain ${\Omega_{\varepsilon} \subset \mathbb{R}^d}$ , which is a family of perturbation of domains from ${\Omega\equiv \Omega_0}$ with the smooth boundary ${\partial\Omega}$ . Assuming the volume preserving property, that is, ${\mbox{vol.}\Omega_{\varepsilon} = \mbox{vol.}\Omega}$ for all ${\varepsilon > 0}$ , we give an explicit representation formula for ${\delta G(x, y) \equiv \lim_{\varepsilon\to +0}\varepsilon^{-1}(G_{\varepsilon}(x, y) - G_0(x, y))}$ in terms of the boundary integral on ${\partial \Omega}$ of ${G_0(x, y)}$ . Our result may be regarded as a classical Hadamard variational formula for the Green’s functions of the elliptic boundary value problems.     

Regularization of Point Vortices Pairs for the Euler Equation in Dimension Two

In this paper, we construct stationary classical solutions of the incompressible Euler equation approximating singular stationary solutions of this equation. This procedure is carried out by constructing solutions to the following elliptic problem $$\left\{\begin{array}{l@{\quad}l} -\varepsilon^2 \Delta u = \sum\limits_{i=1}^m \chi_{\Omega_i^{+}} \left(u - q - \frac{\kappa_i^{+}}{2\pi} {\rm ln} \frac{1}{\varepsilon}\right)_+^p\\ \quad - \sum_{j=1}^n \chi_{\Omega_j^{-}} \left(q - \frac{\kappa_j^{-}}{2\pi} {\rm \ln} \frac{1}{\varepsilon} - u\right)_+^p , \quad \quad x \in \Omega,\\ u = 0, \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad \quad x \in \partial \Omega,\end{array}\right.$$ where p > 1, ${\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2}$ is a bounded domain, ${\Omega_i^{+}}$ and ${\Omega_j^{-}}$ are mutually disjoint subdomains of Ω and ${\chi_{\Omega_i^{+}} ({\rm resp}.\; \chi_{\Omega_j^{-}})}$ are characteristic functions of ${\Omega_i^{+}({\rm resp}. \;\Omega_j^{-}})$ , q is a harmonic function. We show that if Ω is a simply-connected smooth domain, then for any given C ¹-stable critical point of Kirchhoff–Routh function ${\mathcal{W}\;(x_1^{+},\ldots, x_m^{+}, x_1^{-}, \ldots, x_n^{-})}$ with ${\kappa^{+}_i > 0\,(i = 1,\ldots, m)}$ and ${\kappa^{-}_j > 0\,(j = 1,\ldots,n)}$ , there is a stationary classical solution approximating stationary m + n points vortex solution of incompressible Euler equations with total vorticity ${\sum_{i=1}^m \kappa^{+}_i -\sum_{j=1}^n \kappa_j^{-}}$ . The case that n = 0 can be dealt with in the same way as well by taking each ${\Omega_j^{-}}$ as an empty set and set ${\chi_{\Omega_j^{-}} \equiv 0,\,\kappa^{-}_j=0}$ .     

Stabilization in a two-dimensional chemotaxis-Navier–Stokes system

This paper deals with an initial-boundary value problem for the system $$\left\{ \begin{array}{llll} n_t + u\cdot\nabla n &=& \Delta n -\nabla \cdot (n\chi(c)\nabla c), \quad\quad & x\in\Omega, \, t > 0,\\ c_t + u\cdot\nabla c &=& \Delta c-nf(c), \quad\quad & x\in\Omega, \, t > 0,\\ u_t + \kappa (u\cdot \nabla) u &=& \Delta u + \nabla P + n \nabla\phi, \qquad & x\in\Omega, \, t > 0,\\ \nabla \cdot u &=& 0, \qquad & x\in\Omega, \, t > 0,\end{array} \right.$$ which has been proposed as a model for the spatio-temporal evolution of populations of swimming aerobic bacteria. It is known that in bounded convex domains ${\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2}$ and under appropriate assumptions on the parameter functions χ, f and ?, for each ${\kappa\in\mathbb{R}}$ and all sufficiently smooth initial data this problem possesses a unique global-in-time classical solution. The present work asserts that this solution stabilizes to the spatially uniform equilibrium ${(\overline{n_0},0,0)}$ , where ${\overline{n_0}:=\frac{1}{|\Omega|} \int_\Omega n(x,0)\,{\rm d}x}$ , in the sense that as t→∞, $$n(\cdot,t) \to \overline{n_0}, \qquad c(\cdot,t) \to 0 \qquad \text{and}\qquad u(\cdot,t) \to 0$$ hold with respect to the norm in ${L^\infty(\Omega)}$ .     

Generalized Flows Satisfying Spatial Boundary Conditions

In a region D in ${\mathbb{R}^2}$ or ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ , the classical Euler equation for the regular motion of an inviscid and incompressible fluid of constant density is given by $$\partial_t v+(v\cdot \nabla_x)v=-\nabla_x p, {\rm div}_x v=0,$$ where v(t, x) is the velocity of the particle located at ${x\in D}$ at time t and ${p(t,x)\in\mathbb{R}}$ is the pressure. Solutions v and p to the Euler equation can be obtained by solving $$\left\{\begin{array}{l} \nabla_x\left\{\partial_t\phi(t,x,a) + p(t,x)+(1/2)|\nabla_x\phi(t,x,a)|^2 \right\}=0\,{\rm at}\,a=\kappa(t,x),\\ v(t,x)=\nabla_x \phi(t,x,a)\,{\rm at}\,a=\kappa(t,x), \\ \partial_t\kappa(t,x)+(v\cdot\nabla_x)\kappa(t,x)=0, \\ {\rm div}_x v(t,x)=0, \end{array}\right. \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(0.1)$$ where $$\phi:\mathbb{R}\times D\times \mathbb{R}^l\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\,{\rm and}\, \kappa:\mathbb{R}\times D \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^l$$ are additional unknown mappings (l?≥ 1 is prescribed). The third equation in the system says that ${\kappa\in\mathbb{R}^l}$ is convected by the flow and the second one that ${\phi}$ can be interpreted as some kind of velocity potential. However vorticity is not precluded thanks to the dependence on a. With the additional condition κ(0, x)?=?x on D (and thus l?=?2 or 3), this formulation was developed by Brenier (Commun Pure Appl Math 52:411–452, 1999) in his Eulerian–Lagrangian variational approach to the Euler equation. He considered generalized flows that do not cross ${\partial D}$ and that carry each “particle” at time t?=?0 at a prescribed location at time t?=?T?>?0, that is, κ(T, x) is prescribed in D for all ${x\in D}$ . We are concerned with flows that are periodic in time and with prescribed flux through each point of the boundary ${\partial D}$ of the bounded region D (a two- or three-dimensional straight pipe). More precisely, the boundary condition is on the flux through ${\partial D}$ of particles labelled by each value of κ at each point of ${\partial D}$ . One of the main novelties is the introduction of a prescribed “generalized” Bernoulli’s function ${H:\mathbb{R}^l\rightarrow \mathbb{R}}$ , namely, we add to (0.1) the requirement that $$\partial_t\phi(t,x,a) +p(t,x)+(1/2)|\nabla_x\phi(t,x,a)|^2=H(a)\,{\rm at}\,a=\kappa(t,x)\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(0.2)$$ with ${\phi,p,\kappa}$ periodic in time of prescribed period T?>?0. Equations (0.1) and (0.2) have a geometrical interpretation that is related to the notions of “Lamb’s surfaces” and “isotropic manifolds” in symplectic geometry. They may lead to flows with vorticity. An important advantage of Brenier’s formulation and its present adaptation consists in the fact that, under natural hypotheses, a solution in some weak sense always exists (if the boundary conditions are not contradictory). It is found by considering the functional $$(\kappa,v)\rightarrow \int\limits_{0}^T \int\limits_D\left\{\frac 1 2 |v(t,x)|^2+H(\kappa(t,x))\right\}dt\, dx$$ defined for κ and v that are T-periodic in t, such that $$\partial_t\kappa(t,x)+(v\cdot\nabla_x)\kappa(t,x)=0, {\rm div}_x v(t,x)=0,$$ and such that they satisfy the boundary conditions. The domain of this functional is enlarged to some set of vector measures and then a minimizer can be obtained. For stationary planar flows, the approach is compared with the following standard minimization method: to minimize $$\int\limits_{]0,L[\times]0,1[} \{(1/2)|\nabla \psi|^2+H(\psi)\}dx\,{\rm for}\,\psi\in W^{1,2}(]0,L[\times]0,1[)$$ under appropriate boundary conditions, where ψ is the stream function. For a minimizer, corresponding functions ${\phi}$ and κ are given in terms of the stream function ψ.     

Liouville Type Property and Spreading Speeds of KPP Equations in Periodic Media with Localized Spatial Inhomogeneity

The current paper is devoted to the study of semilinear dispersal evolution equations of the form $$\begin{aligned} u_t(t,x)=(\mathcal {A}u)(t,x)+u(t,x)f(t,x,u(t,x)),\quad x\in \mathcal {H}, \end{aligned}$$ where $\mathcal {H}=\mathbb {R}^N$ or $\mathbb {Z}^N,\; \mathcal {A}$ is a random dispersal operator or nonlocal dispersal operator in the case $\mathcal {H}=\mathbb {R}^N$ and is a discrete dispersal operator in the case $\mathcal {H}=\mathbb {Z}^N$ , and $f$ is periodic in $t$ , asymptotically periodic in $x$ (i.e. $f(t,x,u)-f_0(t,x,u)$ converges to $0$ as $\Vert x\Vert \rightarrow \infty $ for some time and space periodic function $f_0(t,x,u)$ ), and is of KPP type in $u$ . It is proved that Liouville type property for such equations holds, that is, time periodic strictly positive solutions are unique. It is also proved that if $u\equiv 0$ is a linearly unstable solution to the time and space periodic limit equation of such an equation, then it has a unique stable time periodic strictly positive solution and has a spatial spreading speed in every direction.     

Mixtures of foam and paste: suspensions of bubbles in yield stress fluids

We study the rheological behavior of mixtures of foams and pastes, which can be described as suspensions of bubbles in yield stress fluids. Model systems are designed by mixing monodisperse aqueous foams and concentrated emulsions. The elastic modulus of the bubble suspensions is found to depend on the elastic capillary number $\textit{Ca}_{_G}$ , defined as the ratio of the paste elastic modulus to the bubble capillary pressure. For values of $\textit{Ca}_{_G}$ larger than $\simeq 0.5$ , the dimensionless elastic modulus of the aerated material decreases as the bubble volume fraction $\phi $ increases, suggesting that bubbles behave as soft elastic inclusions. Consistently, this decrease is all the sharper as $\textit{Ca}_{_G}$ is high, which accounts for the softening of the bubbles as compared to the paste. By contrast, we find that the yield stress of most studied materials is not modified by the presence of bubbles. This suggests that their plastic behavior is governed by the plastic capillary number $\textit{Ca}_{\tau_y}$ , defined as the ratio of the paste yield stress to the bubble capillary pressure. At low $\textit{Ca}_{\tau_y}$ values, bubbles behave as nondeformable inclusions, and we predict that the suspension dimensionless yield stress should remain close to unity, in agreement with our data up to $\textit{Ca}_{\tau_y}=0.2$ . When preparing systems with a larger target value of $\textit{Ca}_{\tau_y}$ , we observe bubble breakup during mixing, which means that they have been deformed by shear. It then seems that a critical value $\textit{Ca}_{\tau_y}\simeq 0.2$ is never exceeded in the final material. These observations might imply that, in bubble suspensions prepared by mixing a foam and a paste, the suspension yield stress is always close to that of the paste surrounding the bubbles. Finally, at the highest $\phi $ investigated, the yield stress is shown to increase abruptly with $\phi $ : this is interpreted as a “foamy yield stress fluid” regime, which takes place when the paste mesoscopic constitutive elements (here, the oil droplets) are strongly confined in the films between the bubbles.     

Generalized Resolvent Estimates of the Stokes Equations with First Order Boundary Condition in a General Domain

In this paper, we prove unique existence of solutions to the generalized resolvent problem of the Stokes operator with first order boundary condition in a general domain ${\Omega}$ of the N-dimensional Eulidean space ${\mathbb{R}^N, N \geq 2}$ . This type of problem arises in the mathematical study of the flow of a viscous incompressible one-phase fluid with free surface. Moreover, we prove uniform estimates of solutions with respect to resolvent parameter ${\lambda}$ varying in a sector ${\Sigma_{\sigma, \lambda_0} = \{\lambda \in \mathbb{C} \mid |\arg \lambda| < \pi-\sigma, \enskip |\lambda| \geq \lambda_0\}}$ , where ${0 < \sigma < \pi/2}$ and ${\lambda_0 \geq 1}$ . The essential assumption of this paper is the existence of a unique solution to a suitable weak Dirichlet problem, namely it is assumed the unique existence of solution ${p \in \hat{W}^1_{q, \Gamma}(\Omega)}$ to the variational problem: ${(\nabla p, \nabla \varphi) = (f, \nabla \varphi)}$ for any ${\varphi \in \hat W^1_{q', \Gamma}(\Omega)}$ . Here, ${1 < q < \infty, q' = q/(q-1), \hat W^1_{q, \Gamma}(\Omega)}$ is the closure of ${W^1_{q, \Gamma}(\Omega) = \{ p \in W^1_q(\Omega) \mid p|_\Gamma = 0\}}$ by the semi-norm ${\|\nabla \cdot \|_{L_q(\Omega)}}$ , and ${\Gamma}$ is the boundary of ${\Omega}$ . In fact, we show that the unique solvability of such a Dirichlet problem is necessary for the unique existence of a solution to the resolvent problem with uniform estimate with respect to resolvent parameter varying in ${(\lambda_0, \infty)}$ . Our assumption is satisfied for any ${q \in (1, \infty)}$ by the following domains: whole space, half space, layer, bounded domains, exterior domains, perturbed half space, perturbed layer, but for a general domain, we do not know any result about the unique existence of solutions to the weak Dirichlet problem except for q =  2.     

Elongational rheology of NIPAM-based hydrogels

Hydrogels of different composition based on the copolymerization of N-isopropyl acrylamide and surfmers of different chemical structure were tested in elongation using Hencky/real definitions for stress, strain, and strain rate, offering a more scientific insight into the effect of deformation on the properties. In a range between $\dot {\varepsilon }=10$ and 0.01 s $^{-1}$ , the material properties are independent of strain rate and show a very clear strain hardening with a “brittle” sudden fracture. The addition of surfmer increases the strain at break $\varepsilon _{\mathrm {H}}^{\max }$ and at the same time leads to a failure of hyperelastic models. The samples can be stretched up to Hencky strains $\varepsilon _{\mathrm {H}}^{\max }$ between 0.6 and 2.5, depending on the molecular structure, yielding linear Young’s moduli E $_{0}$ between 2,700 and 39,000 Pa. The strain-rate independence indicates an ideal rubberlike behavior and fracture in a brittle-like fashion. The resulting stress at break $\sigma _{\textrm max}$ can be correlated with $\varepsilon _{\mathrm {H}}^{\max } $ and $E_{0}$ as well as with the solid molar mass between the cross-linking points $M_{\mathrm {c}}^{\textrm {solids}} $ , derived from $E_{0}$ .     

Random Data Cauchy Theory for the Generalized Incompressible Navier–Stokes Equations

In this paper, we consider the generalized Navier?CStokes equations where the space domain is ${\mathbb{T}^N}$ or ${\mathbb{R}^N, N\geq3}$ . The generalized Navier?CStokes equations here refer to the equations obtained by replacing the Laplacian in the classical Navier?CStokes equations by the more general operator (???) ^?? with ${\alpha\in (\frac{1}{2},\frac{N+2}{4})}$ . After a suitable randomization, we obtain the existence and uniqueness of the local mild solution for a large set of the initial data in ${H^s, s\in[-\alpha,0]}$ , if ${1 < \alpha < \frac{N+2}{4}, s\in(1-2\alpha,0]}$ , if ${\frac{1}{2} < \alpha\leq 1}$ . Furthermore, we obtain the probability for the global existence and uniqueness of the solution. Specially, our result shows that, in some sense, the Cauchy problem of the classical Navier?CStokes equation is local well-posed for a large set of the initial data in H ^?1+, exhibiting a gain of ${\frac{N}{2}-}$ derivatives with respect to the critical Hilbert space ${H^{\frac{N}{2}-1}}$ .     

Incompressible 3D Navier–Stokes Equations as a Limit of a Nonlinear Parabolic System

In this paper, we consider the Cauchy problem for a nonlinear parabolic system ${u^\epsilon_t - \Delta u^\epsilon + u^\epsilon \cdot \nabla u^\epsilon + \frac{1}{2}u^\epsilon\, {\rm div}\, u^\epsilon - \frac{1}{\epsilon}\nabla\, {\rm div}\, u^\epsilon = 0}$ in ${\mathbb {R}^3 \times (0,\infty)}$ with initial data in Lebesgue spaces ${L^2(\mathbb {R}^3)}$ or ${L^3(\mathbb {R}^3)}$ . We analyze the convergence of its solutions to a solution of the incompressible Navier?CStokes system as ${\epsilon \to 0}$ .     

Segregated and Synchronized Vector Solutions for Nonlinear Schrödinger Systems

We consider the following nonlinear Schrödinger system in ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-\Delta u + P(|x|)u = \mu u^{2}u + \beta v^2u,\quad x \in \mathbb{R}^3,\\-\Delta v + Q(|x|)v = \nu v^{2}v + \beta u^2v,\quad x \in \mathbb{R}^3,\end{array}\right.$$ where P(r) and Q(r) are positive radial potentials, ${\mu > 0, \nu > 0}$ and ${\beta \in \mathbb{R}}$ is a coupling constant. This type of system arises, in particular, in models in Bose–Einstein condensates theory. We examine the effect of nonlinear coupling on the solution structure. In the repulsive case, we construct an unbounded sequence of non-radial positive vector solutions of segregated type, and in the attractive case we construct an unbounded sequence of non-radial positive vector solutions of synchronized type. Depending upon the system being repulsive or attractive, our results exhibit distinct characteristic features of vector solutions.     

A Concentration Phenomenon for Semilinear Elliptic Equations

For a domain ${\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^{N}}$ we consider the equation $$-\Delta{u} + V(x)u = Q_n(x)|{u}|^{p-2}u$$ with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions and ${p\in(2, 2^*)}$ . Here ${V \geqq 0}$ and Q _n are bounded functions that are positive in a region contained in ${\Omega}$ and negative outside, and such that the sets {Q _n  > 0} shrink to a point ${x_0 \in \Omega}$ as ${n \to \infty}$ . We show that if u _n is a nontrivial solution corresponding to Q _n , then the sequence (u _n ) concentrates at x ₀ with respect to the H ¹ and certain L ^q -norms. We also show that if the sets {Q _n  > 0} shrink to two points and u _n are ground state solutions, then they concentrate at one of these points.     

Stochastic Variational Inequalities and Applications to the Total Variation Flow Perturbed by Linear Multiplicative Noise

In this work, we introduce a new method to prove the existence and uniqueness of a variational solution to the stochastic nonlinear diffusion equation ${{\rm d}X(t) = {\rm div} \left[\frac{\nabla X(t)}{|\nabla X(t)|}\right]{\rm d}t + X(t){\rm d}W(t) {\rm in} (0, \infty) \times \mathcal{O},}$ where ${\mathcal{O}}$ is a bounded and open domain in ${\mathbb{R}^N, N \geqq 1}$ and W(t) is a Wiener process of the form ${W(t) = \sum^{\infty}_{k = 1}\mu_{k}e_{k}\beta_{k}(t), e_{k} \in C^{2}(\overline{\mathcal{O}}) \cap H^{1}_{0}(\mathcal{O}),}$ and ${\beta_{k}, k \in \mathbb{N}}$ are independent Brownian motions. This is a stochastic diffusion equation with a highly singular diffusivity term. One main result established here is that for all initial conditions in ${L^2(\mathcal{O})}$ , it is well posed in a class of continuous solutions to the corresponding stochastic variational inequality. Thus, one obtains a stochastic version of the (minimal) total variation flow. The new approach developed here also allows us to prove the finite time extinction of solutions in dimensions ${1\leqq N \leqq3}$ , which is another main result of this work.     

On the Stokes and Oseen Problems with Singular Data

We consider the steady Stokes and Oseen problems in bounded and exterior domains of ${\mathbb{R}^n}$ of class C ^k-1,1 (n = 2, 3; k ≥ 2). We prove existence and uniqueness of a very weak solution for boundary data a in ${W^{2-k-1/q,q} (\partial\Omega)}$ . If ${\Omega}$ is of class ${C^\infty}$ , we can assume a to be a distribution on ${\partial\Omega}$ .     

A-Priori Direct Numerical Simulation Modelling of Co-variance Transport in Turbulent Stratified Flames

Three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulations of statistically planar turbulent stratified flames at global equivalence ratios <???>?=?0.7 and <???>?=?1.0 have been carried out to analyse the statistical behaviour of the transport of co-variance of the fuel mass fraction Y _F and mixture fraction ξ (i.e. $\widetilde{Y_F^{\prime\prime} \xi ^{\prime\prime}}={\overline {\rho Y_F^{\prime\prime} \xi^{\prime\prime}} } \Big/ {\overline \rho })$ for Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes simulations where $\overline q $ , $\tilde{q} ={\overline {\rho q} } \big/ {\overline \rho }$ and $q^{\prime\prime}= q-\tilde{q}$ are Reynolds averaged, Favre mean and Favre fluctuation of a general quantity q with ρ being the gas density and the overbar suggesting a Reynolds averaging operation. It has been found that existing algebraic expressions may not capture the statistical behaviour of $\widetilde{Y_F^{\prime\prime} \xi^{\prime\prime}}$ with sufficient accuracy in low Damköhler number combustion and therefore, a transport equation for $\widetilde{Y_F^{\prime\prime} \xi^{\prime\prime}}$ may need to be solved. The statistical behaviours of $\widetilde{Y_F^{\prime\prime} \xi^{\prime\prime}}$ and the unclosed terms of its transport equation (i.e. the terms originating from turbulent transport T ₁ , reaction rate T ₄ and molecular dissipation $\left( {-D_2 } \right))$ have been analysed in detail. The contribution of T ₁ remains important for all cases considered here. The term T ₄ acts as a major contributor in <???>?=?1.0 cases, but plays a relatively less important role in <???>?=?0.7 cases, whereas the term $\left( {-D_2 } \right)$ acts mostly as a leading order sink. Through an a-priori DNS analysis, the performances of the models for T ₁ , T ₄ and $\left( {-D_2 } \right)$ have been addressed in detail. A model has been identified for the turbulent transport term T ₁ which satisfactorily predicts the corresponding term obtained from DNS data. The models for T ₄ , which were originally proposed for high Damköhler number flames, have been modified for low Damköhler combustion. Predictions of the modified models are found to be in good agreement with T ₄ obtained from DNS data. It has been found that existing algebraic models for $D_2 =2\overline {\rho D\nabla Y_F^{\prime\prime} \nabla \xi^{\prime\prime}} $ (where D is the mass diffusivity) are not sufficient for low Damköhler number combustion and therefore, a transport equation may need to be solved for the cross-scalar dissipation rate $\widetilde{\varepsilon }_{Y\xi } ={\overline {\rho D\nabla Y_F^{\prime\prime} \nabla \xi^{\prime\prime}} } \big/ {\overline \rho }$ for the closure of the $\widetilde{Y_F^{\prime\prime} \xi^{\prime\prime}}$ transport equation.