Blow-up analysis for a nonlinear diffusion system

This paper deals with a nonlinear diffusion system coupled via nonlinear reaction terms of power type. As results of interactions among the multi-nonlinearities in the system described by six exponents, global boundedness and blow-up criteria of positive solutions are determined.Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.Received: December 12, 2001; revised: May 6, December 3, 2002     

Semi-hyperbolic patches of solutions to the two-dimensional nonlinear wave system for Chaplygin gases

Semi-hyperbolic patches are the regions in which one family out of two nonlinear families of characteristics starts on sonic curves and ends on transonic shock waves. This type of region appears frequently in the two-dimensional Riemann problem for the Euler equations and its simplified models and a few other situations. We construct a semi-hyperbolic patch of solution to the two-dimensional nonlinear wave system with Chaplygin gas equation of state by approaching the problem as a Goursat-type boundary value problem which has a sonic curve as the degenerate boundary.     

On the coupled BEM and FEM for a nonlinear exterior Dirichlet problem in R2

Summary In this paper we apply the coupling of boundary integral and finite element methods to solve a nonlinear exterior Dirichlet problem in the plane. Specifically, the boundary value problem consists of a nonlinear second order elliptic equation in divergence form in a bounded inner region, and the Laplace equation in the corresponding unbounded exterior region, in addition to appropriate boundary and transmission conditions. The main feature of the coupling method utilized here consists in the reduction of the nonlinear exterior boundary value problem to an equivalent monotone operator equation. We provide sufficient conditions for the coefficients of the nonlinear elliptic equation from which existence, uniqueness and approximation results are established. Then, we consider the case where the corresponding operator is strongly monotone and Lipschitz-continuous, and derive asymptotic error estimates for a boundary-finite element solution. We prove the unique solvability of the discrete operator equations, and based on a Strang type abstract error estimate, we show the strong convergence of the approximated solutions. Moreover, under additional regularity assumptions on the solution of the continous operator equation, the asymptotic rate of convergenceO (h) is obtained.The first author's research was partly supported by the U.S. Army Research Office through the Mathematical Science Institute of Cornell University, by the Universidad de Concepción through the Facultad de Ciencias, Dirección de Investigación and Vicerretoria, and by FONDECYT-Chile through Project 91-386.     

STABILITY ANALYSIS OF NONLINEAR GALERKIN ＆ GALERKIN METHODS FOR NONLINEAR EVOLUTION EQUATIONS

Abstract. Ogr object in this artlcle is to describe tbe Galerkln scheme and nonlin-eax Galerkin scheme for the approximation of nonlinear evolution equations, and tostudy the stability of these schemes. Spatial discretizatlon can be pedormed by eitherGalerkln spectral method or nonlinear Galerldn spectral method; time discretizatlort isdone hy Euler sin.heine wklch is explicit or implicit in the nonlinear terms. According tothe stability analysis of the above schemes, the stability of nonllneex Galerkln methodis better than that of Galexkln method.     

Vanishing viscosity with short wave-long wave interactions for multi-D scalar conservation laws

We consider a system coupling a multidimensional semilinear Schrödinger equation and a multidimensional nonlinear scalar conservation law with viscosity, which is motivated by a model of short wave-long wave interaction introduced by Benney (1977). We prove the global existence and uniqueness of the solution of the Cauchy problem for this system. We also prove the convergence of the whole sequence of solutions when the viscosity ε and the interaction parameter α approach zero so that α=o(ε1/2). We also indicate how to extend these results to more general systems which couple multidimensional semilinear systems of Schrödinger equations with multidimensional nonlinear systems of scalar conservation laws mildly coupled.     

On general boundary-value problems for nonlinear elliptic equations of second order in a multiply connected plane domain

This paper deals with some general irregular oblique derivative problems for nonlinear uniformly elliptic equations of second order in a multiply connected plane domain. Firstly, we state the well-posedness of a new set of modified boundary conditions. Secondly, we verify the existence of solutions of the modified boundary-value problem for harmonic functions, and then prove the solvability of the modified problem for nonlinear elliptic equations, which includes the original boundary-value problem (i.e. boundary conditions without involving undertermined functions data). Here, mainly, the location of the zeros of analytic functions, a priori estimates for solutions and the continuity method are used in deriving all these results. Furthermore, the present approach and setting seems to be new and different from what has been employed before.The research was partially supported by a UPGC Grant of Hong Kong.     

Stefan problems with nonlinear diffusion and convection

We consider a class of Stefan-type problems having a convection term and a pseudomonotone nonlinear diffusion operator. Assuming data in L¹, we prove existence, uniqueness and stability in the framework of renormalized solutions. Existence is established from compactness and monotonicity arguments which yield stability of solutions with respect to L¹ convergence of the data. Uniqueness is proved through a classical L¹-contraction principle, obtained by a refinement of the doubling variable technique which allows us to extend previous results to a more general class of nonlinear possibly degenerate operators.     

Existence and uniqueness of positive solutions for singular nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems

In this paper we establish the existence and the uniqueness of positive solutions for Dirichlet boundary value problems of nonlinear elliptic equations with singularity. We obtain the existence and the uniqueness by using the mixed monotone method in the cone theory. Moreover, we give an iterative method of constructing the solution. The rate of convergence of the iterative sequence is analyzed.     

Optimal partial regularity for weak solutions of nonlinear sub-elliptic systems in Carnot groups

This paper is concerned with partial regularity for weak solutions to nonlinear sub-elliptic systems in divergence form in Carnot groups. The technique of A-harmonic approximation introduced by Simon and developed by Duzaar and Grotowski is adapted to our context. We establish Caccioppoli type inequalities and partial regularity with optimal local Hölder exponents for horizontal gradients of weak solutions to systems under super-quadratic natural structure conditions and super-quadratic controllable structure conditions, respectively.     

Large time behavior of solutions to Newtonian filtration equation with nonlinear boundary sources

This paper deals with the exterior problem of the Newtonian filtration equation with nonlinear boundary sources. The large time behavior of solutions including the critical Fujita exponent are determined or estimated. An interesting phenomenon is illustrated that there exists a threshold value for the coefficient of the lower order term, which depends on the spacial dimension. Exactly speaking, the critical global exponent is strictly less than the critical Fujita exponent when the coefficient is under this threshold, while these two exponents are identically equal when the coefficient is over this threshold. Supported by the NNSF of China and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.     

Harnack inequality and continuity of solutions to quasi-linear degenerate parabolic equations with coefficients from Kato-type classes

For a general class of divergence type quasi-linear degenerate parabolic equations with measurable coefficients and lower order terms from nonlinear Kato-type classes, we prove local boundedness and continuity of solutions, and the intrinsic Harnack inequality for positive solutions.     

Perturbation analysis of generalized saddle point systems

We discuss the perturbation analysis of generalized saddle point systems in this paper. We give the nonlinear perturbation bounds, then derive the condition numbers, and analyze the sensitivity of the computed solutions.     

A trapping principle and convergence result for finite element approximate solutions of steady reaction/diffusion systems

We consider nonlinear elliptic systems, with mixed boundary conditions, on a convex polyhedral domain Ω ⊂ R ^N . These are nonlinear divergence form generalizations of Δu = f(·, u), where f is outward pointing on the trapping region boundary. The motivation is that of applications to steady-state reaction/diffusion systems. Also included are reaction/diffusion/convection systems which satisfy the Einstein relations, for which the Cole-Hopf transformation is possible. For maximum generality, the theory is not tied to any specific application. We are able to demonstrate a trapping principle for the piecewise linear Galerkin approximation, defined via a lumped integration hypothesis on integrals involving f, by use of variational inequalities. Results of this type have previously been obtained for parabolic systems by Estep, Larson, and Williams, and for nonlinear elliptic equations by Karátson and Korotov. Recent minimum and maximum principles have been obtained by Jüngel and Unterreiter for nonlinear elliptic equations. We make use of special properties of the element stiffness matrices, induced by a geometric constraint upon the simplicial decomposition. This constraint is known as the non-obtuseness condition. It states that the inward normals, associated with an arbitrary pair of an element’s faces, determine an angle with nonpositive cosine. Drăgănescu, Dupont, and Scott have constructed an example for which the discrete maximum principle fails if this condition is omitted. We also assume vertex communication in each element in the form of an irreducibility hypothesis on the off-diagonal elements of the stiffness matrix. There is a companion convergence result, which yields an existence theorem for the solution. This entails a consistency hypothesis for interpolation on the boundary, and depends on the Tabata construction of simple function approximation, based on barycentric regions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant DMS-0311263.     

Some estimates of the norm of solutions of nonlinear elliptic eigenvalue problems

We obtain estimates on the possible growth or decay rates as λ → 0 of sup |u^λ|, where uλ ? O satisfies the nonlinear elliptic boundary value problen Lu_λ = λ f(x,u_λ) in a bounded domain subject to homogensous Dirichlet boundary conditions. The estimates generalize existing results by allowing f(x,O) ≠ 0. The analysis is based on integration by parts and Sobolev inequalitie.     

Optimal partial regularity for sub-elliptic systems with sub-quadratic growth in Carnot groups

This paper is devoted to partial regularity for weak solutions to nonlinear sub-elliptic systems for the case 1<m<2 under natural growth conditions in Carnot groups. The method of A-harmonic approximation introduced by Simon and developed by Duzaar, Grotowski and Kronz is adapted to our context, and then partial regularity with the optimal local Hölder exponent for horizontal gradients of weak solutions to the systems is established.     

Space–time discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for shallow water flows

A space–time discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element method is presented for the shallow water equations over varying bottom topography. The method results in nonlinear equations per element, which are solved locally by establishing the element communication with a numerical HLLC flux. To deal with spurious oscillations around discontinuities, we employ a dissipation operator only around discontinuities using Krivodonova's discontinuity detector. The numerical scheme is verified by comparing numerical and exact solutions, and validated against a laboratory experiment involving flow through a contraction. We conclude that the method is second order accurate in both space and time for linear polynomials.     

Global singularity structure of weak solutions to 3-D semilinear dispersive wave equations with discontinuous initial data

We study the global singularity structure of solutions to 3-D semilinear wave equations with discontinuous initial data. More precisely, using Strichartz’ inequality we show that the solutions stay conormal after nonlinear interaction if the Cauchy data are conormal along a circle.     

Semilinear behavior for totally linearly degenerate hyperbolic systems with relaxation

We investigate totally linearly degenerate hyperbolic systems with relaxation. We aim to study their semilinear behavior, which means that the local smooth solutions cannot develop shocks, and the global existence is controlled by the supremum bound of the solution. In this paper we study two specific examples: the Suliciu-type and the Kerr-Debye-type models. For the Suliciu model, which arises from the numerical approximation of isentropic flows, the semilinear behavior is obtained using pointwise estimates of the gradient. For the Kerr-Debye systems, which arise in nonlinear optics, we show the semilinear behavior via energy methods. For the original Kerr-Debye model, thanks to the special form of the interaction terms, we can show the global existence of smooth solutions.     

A fourth order parabolic equation with nonlinear principal part

In this paper, we study a fourth order parabolic equation with nonlinear principal part modeling epitaxial thin film growth in two space dimensions. On the basis of the Schauder type estimates and Campanato spaces, we prove the global existence of classical solutions.     

Nonlinear diffusion waves for hyperbolic p-system with nonlinear damping

This paper is concerned with the p-system of hyperbolic conservation laws with nonlinear damping. When the constant states are small, the solutions of the Cauchy problem for the damped p-system globally exist and converge to their corresponding nonlinear diffusion waves, which are the solutions of the corresponding nonlinear parabolic equation given by the Darcy's law. The optimal convergence rates are also obtained. In order to overcome the difficulty caused by the nonlinear damping, a couple of correction functions have been technically constructed. The approach adopted is the elementary energy method together with the technique of approximating Green function. On the other hand, when the constant states are large, the solutions of the Cauchy problem for the p-system will blow up at a finite time.