| Abstract: | Summary When two immiscible fluids in a porous medium are in contact with one another, an interface is formed and the movement of
the fluids results in a free boundary problem for determining the location of the interface along with the pressure distribution
throughout the medium. The pressure satisfies a nonlinear parabolic partial differential equation on each side of the interface
while the pressure and the volumetric velocity are continuous across the interface. The movement of the interface is related
to the pressure through Darcy’s law. Two kinds of boundary conditions are considered. In Part I the pressure is prescribed
on the known boundary. A weak formulation of the classical problem is obtained and the existence of a weak solution is demonstrated
as a limit of a sequence of classical solutions to certain parabolic boundary value problems. In Part II the same analysis
is carried out when the flux is specified on the known boundary, employing special techniques to obtain the uniform parabolicity
of the sequence of approximating problems.
Entrata in Redazione il 29 novembre 1975.
This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, the Senior Fellowship Program of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, and the Texas Tech. University. |
