2,641 research outputs found
Supersonic Flow onto Solid Wedges, Multidimensional Shock Waves and Free Boundary Problems
When an upstream steady uniform supersonic flow impinges onto a symmetric
straight-sided wedge, governed by the Euler equations, there are two possible
steady oblique shock configurations if the wedge angle is less than the
detachment angle -- the steady weak shock with supersonic or subsonic
downstream flow (determined by the wedge angle that is less or larger than the
sonic angle) and the steady strong shock with subsonic downstream flow, both of
which satisfy the entropy condition. The fundamental issue -- whether one or
both of the steady weak and strong shocks are physically admissible solutions
-- has been vigorously debated over the past eight decades. In this paper, we
survey some recent developments on the stability analysis of the steady shock
solutions in both the steady and dynamic regimes. For the static stability, we
first show how the stability problem can be formulated as an initial-boundary
value type problem and then reformulate it into a free boundary problem when
the perturbation of both the upstream steady supersonic flow and the wedge
boundary are suitably regular and small, and we finally present some recent
results on the static stability of the steady supersonic and transonic shocks.
For the dynamic stability for potential flow, we first show how the stability
problem can be formulated as an initial-boundary value problem and then use the
self-similarity of the problem to reduce it into a boundary value problem and
further reformulate it into a free boundary problem, and we finally survey some
recent developments in solving this free boundary problem for the existence of
the Prandtl-Meyer configurations that tend to the steady weak supersonic or
transonic oblique shock solutions as time goes to infinity. Some further
developments and mathematical challenges in this direction are also discussed.Comment: 19 pages; 8 figures; accepted by Science China Mathematics on
February 22, 2017 (invited survey paper). doi: 10.1007/s11425-016-9045-
Weak Continuity and Compactness for Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations
We present several examples of fundamental problems involving weak continuity
and compactness for nonlinear partial differential equations, in which
compensated compactness and related ideas have played a significant role. We
first focus on the compactness and convergence of vanishing viscosity solutions
for nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws, including the inviscid limit from
the Navier-Stokes equations to the Euler equations for homentropy flow, the
vanishing viscosity method to construct the global spherically symmetric
solutions to the multidimensional compressible Euler equations, and the
sonic-subsonic limit of solutions of the full Euler equations for
multidimensional steady compressible fluids. We then analyze the weak
continuity and rigidity of the Gauss-Codazzi-Ricci system and corresponding
isometric embeddings in differential geometry. Further references are also
provided for some recent developments on the weak continuity and compactness
for nonlinear partial differential equations.Comment: 29 page
Solutions for a Nonlocal Conservation Law with Fading Memory
Global entropy solutions in for a scalar nonlocal conservation law with
fading memory are constructed as limits of vanishing viscosity approximate
solutions. The uniqueness and stability of entropy solutions in are
established, which also yield the existence of entropy solutions in
while the initial data is only in . Moreover, if the memory kernel
depends on a relaxation parameter \de>0 and tends to a delta measure weakly
as measures when \de\to 0+, then the global entropy solution sequence in
converges to an admissible solution in for the corresponding local
conservation law.Comment: 11 pages. Proceedings of American Mathematical Society, 2006 (to
appear
Global Solutions of Shock Reflection by Large-Angle Wedges for Potential Flow
When a plane shock hits a wedge head on, it experiences a
reflection-diffraction process and then a self-similar reflected shock moves
outward as the original shock moves forward in time. Experimental,
computational, and asymptotic analysis has shown that various patterns of shock
reflection may occur, including regular and Mach reflection. However, most of
the fundamental issues for shock reflection have not been understood, including
the global structure, stability, and transition of the different patterns of
shock reflection. Therefore, it is essential to establish the global existence
and structural stability of solutions of shock reflection in order to
understand fully the phenomena of shock reflection. On the other hand, there
has been no rigorous mathematical result on the global existence and structural
stability of shock reflection, including the case of potential flow which is
widely used in aerodynamics. Such problems involve several challenging
difficulties in the analysis of nonlinear partial differential equations such
as mixed equations of elliptic-hyperbolic type, free boundary problems, and
corner singularity where an elliptic degenerate curve meets a free boundary. In
this paper we develop a rigorous mathematical approach to overcome these
difficulties involved and establish a global theory of existence and stability
for shock reflection by large-angle wedges for potential flow. The techniques
and ideas developed here will be useful for other nonlinear problems involving
similar difficulties.Comment: 108 page
Vanishing Viscosity Limit of the Navier-Stokes Equations to the Euler Equations for Compressible Fluid Flow
We establish the vanishing viscosity limit of the Navier-Stokes equations to
the isentropic Euler equations for one-dimensional compressible fluid flow. For
the Navier-Stokes equations, there exist no natural invariant regions for the
equations with the real physical viscosity term so that the uniform sup-norm of
solutions with respect to the physical viscosity coefficient may not be
directly controllable and, furthermore, convex entropy-entropy flux pairs may
not produce signed entropy dissipation measures. To overcome these
difficulties, we first develop uniform energy-type estimates with respect to
the viscosity coefficient for the solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations and
establish the existence of measure-valued solutions of the isentropic Euler
equations generated by the Navier-Stokes equations. Based on the uniform
energy-type estimates and the features of the isentropic Euler equations, we
establish that the entropy dissipation measures of the solutions of the
Navier-Stokes equations for weak entropy-entropy flux pairs, generated by
compactly supported test functions, are confined in a compact set in
, which lead to the existence of measure-valued solutions that are
confined by the Tartar-Murat commutator relation. A careful characterization of
the unbounded support of the measure-valued solution confined by the commutator
relation yields the reduction of the measure-valued solution to a Delta mass,
which leads to the convergence of solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations to a
finite-energy entropy solution of the isentropic Euler equations.Comment: 30 page
Stability of Transonic Shocks in Steady Supersonic Flow past Multidimensional Wedges
We are concerned with the stability of multidimensional (M-D) transonic
shocks in steady supersonic flow past multidimensional wedges. One of our
motivations is that the global stability issue for the M-D case is much more
sensitive than that for the 2-D case, which requires more careful rigorous
mathematical analysis. In this paper, we develop a nonlinear approach and
employ it to establish the stability of weak shock solutions containing a
transonic shock-front for potential flow with respect to the M-D perturbation
of the wedge boundary in appropriate function spaces. To achieve this, we first
formulate the stability problem as a free boundary problem for nonlinear
elliptic equations. Then we introduce the partial hodograph transformation to
reduce the free boundary problem into a fixed boundary value problem near a
background solution with fully nonlinear boundary conditions for second-order
nonlinear elliptic equations in an unbounded domain. To solve this reduced
problem, we linearize the nonlinear problem on the background shock solution
and then, after solving this linearized elliptic problem, develop a nonlinear
iteration scheme that is proved to be contractive.Comment: 41 pages, 10 figure
Stability of Steady Multi-Wave Configurations for the Full Euler Equations of Compressible Fluid Flow
We are concerned with the stability of steady multi-wave configurations for
the full Euler equations of compressible fluid flow. In this paper, we focus on
the stability of steady four-wave configurations that are the solutions of the
Riemann problem in the flow direction, consisting of two shocks, one vortex
sheet, and one entropy wave, which is one of the core multi-wave configurations
for the two-dimensional Euler equations. It is proved that such steady
four-wave configurations in supersonic flow are stable in structure globally,
even under the BV perturbation of the incoming flow in the flow direction. In
order to achieve this, we first formulate the problem as the Cauchy problem
(initial value problem) in the flow direction, and then develop a modified
Glimm difference scheme and identify a Glimm-type functional to obtain the
required BV estimates by tracing the interactions not only between the strong
shocks and weak waves, but also between the strong vortex sheet/entropy wave
and weak waves. The key feature of the Euler equations is that the reflection
coefficient is always less than 1, when a weak wave of different family
interacts with the strong vortex sheet/entropy wave or the shock wave, which is
crucial to guarantee that the Glimm functional is decreasing. Then these
estimates are employed to establish the convergence of the approximate
solutions to a global entropy solution, close to the background solution of
steady four-wave configuration.Comment: 9 figures
Weak Continuity of the Cartan Structural System and Compensated Compactness on Semi-Riemannian Manifolds with Lower Regularity
We are concerned with the global weak continuity of the Cartan structural
system -- or equivalently, the Gauss--Codazzi--Ricci system -- on
semi-Riemannian manifolds with lower regularity. For this purpose, we first
formulate and prove a geometric compensated compactness theorem on vector
bundles over semi-Riemannian manifolds with lower regularity (Theorem 3.2),
extending the classical quadratic theorem of compensated compactness. We then
deduce the weak continuity of the Cartan structural system for : For
a family of connection -forms on a
semi-Riemannian manifold , if is uniformly
bounded in and satisfies the Cartan structural system, then any weak
limit of is also a solution of the Cartan
structural system. Moreover, it is proved that isometric immersions of
semi-Riemannian manifolds into semi-Euclidean spaces can be constructed from
the weak solutions of the Cartan structural system or the Gauss--Codazzi--Ricci
system (Theorem 5.1), which leads to the weak continuity of the
Gauss--Codazzi--Ricci system on semi-Riemannian manifolds. As further
applications, the weak continuity of Einstein's constraint equations, general
immersed hypersurfaces, and the quasilinear wave equations is also established.Comment: 64 page
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