A particle method for first-order symmetric systems

Summary We present and study a conservative particle method of approximation of linear hyperbolic and parabolic systems. This method is based on an extensive use of cut-off functions. We prove its convergence inL ² at the order as soon as the cut-off function belongs toW ^m+1.1.Dedicated to Professor Joachim Nitsche on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

A boundary-value problem for the stationary vlasov-poisson equations: The plane diode

The stationary Vlasov-Poisson boundary value problem in a spatially one-dimensional domain is studied. The equations describe the flow of electrons in a plane diode. Existence is proved when the boundary condition (the cathode emission distribution) is a bounded function which decays super-linearly or a Dirac mass. Uniqueness is proved for (physically realistic) boundary conditions which are decreasing functions of the velocity variable. It is shown that uniqueness does not always hold for the Dirac mass boundary conditions.     

A hierarchy of approximate models for the Maxwell equations

Summary. In this paper we perform an asymptotic study of the Maxwell equations with respect to the small parameter where is the characteristic velocity associated with the physical problem and is the speed of light. This enables us to derive the quasistatic and Darwin models as respectively first and second order approximations of the Maxwell equations. Moreover, an interpretation of the obtained variational formulations gives us the appropriate boundary conditions for these models. Received May 18, 1995     

Characterization of the singular part of the solution of Maxwell's equations in a polyhedral domain

The solution of Maxwell's equations in a non‐convex polyhedral domain is less regular than in a smooth or convex polyhedral domain. In this paper we show that this solution can be decomposed into the orthogonal sum of a singular part and a regular part, and we give a characterization of the singular part. We also prove that the decomposition is linked to the one associated to the scalar Laplacian. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On a variational approach to the Soret coefficient

In this paper, a variational approach to the Soret coefficient initiated by Kempers [J. Chem. Phys. 90, 6541 (1989)] is critically revisited. We show that the physical coherence of the whole procedure leads to a very peculiar choice of the type of constraint one can select to mimic the nonequilibrium stationary state. However, we demonstrate that its precise definition would require a statistical evaluation of the heat of transfer, or a variational approach based on more microscopic ingredients.     

Finite dimensional approximation of nonlinear problems

Summary We continue here the study of a general method of approximation of nonlinear equations in a Banach space yet considered in [2]. In this paper, we give fairly general approximation results for the solutions in a neighborhood of a simple limit point. We the apply the previous analysis to the study of Galerkin approximations for a class of variationally posed nonlinear problems and to a mixed finite element method for the NavierStokes equations.This work has been completed during a visit at the Université Pierre et Marie Curic and at the Ecole PolytechniqueSupported by the Fonds National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique     

An analysis of a mixed finite element method for the Navier-Stokes equations

Summary A simple mixed finite element method is developed to solve the steady state, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in a neighborhood of an isolated—but not necessarily unique—solution. Convergence is established under very mild restrictions on the triangulation, and, when the solution is sufficiently smooth, optimal error bounds are obtained.     

A new model for thermal diffusion: kinetic approach

We present a new model for thermal diffusion, and we compare its results for both simple and real systems. This model is derived from a kinetic approach with explicit mass and chemical contributions. It involves self-diffusion activation free energies, following Prigogine's original approach. We performed, furthermore, both equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics evaluations in order to compute respectively the self-diffusion activation free enthalpies and the Soret coefficient when no experimental data were available. Our model is in very good agreement with simulation data on Lennard-Jones mixtures, and a good behavior is noted for the water-ethanol mixture, where the composition dependence at which the Soret coefficient changes its sign is predicted very accurately. Finally, we propose a new water-ethanol experiment at higher temperature in order to check the validity of our model.     

On the linearization of systems of conservation laws for fluids at a material contact discontinuity

In order to investigate the linearized stability or instability of compressible flows, as it occurs for instance in Rayleigh–Taylor or Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities, we consider the linearization at a material discontinuity of a flow modeled by a multidimensional nonlinear hyperbolic system of conservation laws. Restricting ourselves to the plane-symmetric case, the basic solution is thus a one-dimensional contact discontinuity and the normal modes of pertubations are solutions of the resulting linearized hyperbolic system with discontinuous nonconstant coefficients and source terms. While in Eulerian coordinates, the linearized Cauchy problem has no solution in the class of functions, we prove that for a large class of systems of conservation laws written in Lagrangian coordinates and including the Euler and the ideal M.H.D. systems, there exists a unique function solution of the problem that we construct by the method of characteristics.