Construction of a Lyapunov functional for 1D-viscous compressible barotropic fluid equations admitting vacua

The Navier-Stokes equations for a compressible barotropic fluid in 1D with zero velocity boundary conditions are considered. We study the case of large initial data in H¹ as well as the mass force such that the stationary density is uniquely determined but admits vacua. Missing uniform lower bound for the density is compensated by a careful modification of the construction procedure for a Lyapunov functional known for the case of solutions which are globally away from zero I. Straškraba, A.A. Zlotnik, On a decay rate for 1D-viscous compressible barotropic fluid equations, J. Evol. Equ. 2 (2002) 69-96]. An immediate consequence of this construction is a decay rate estimate for this highly singular problem. The results are proved in the Eulerian coordinates for a large class of increasing state functions including p(ρ)=aργ with any γ>0 (a>0 a constant).