Analysis of improved Nernst-Planck-Poisson models of isothermal compressible electrolytes subject to chemical reactions: The case of a degenerate mobility matrix

Abstract

We continue our investigations of the improved NernstPlanckPoisson model introduced in [DGM13]. In the paper [DDGG16] the analysis relies on the hypothesis that the mobility matrix has maximal rank under the constraint of mass conservation (rank N-1 for a mixture of N species). In this paper we allow for the case that the positive eigenvalues of the mobility matrix tend to zero along with the partial mass densities of certain species. In this approach the mobility matrix has a variable rank between zero and N-1 according to the number of locally available species. We set up a concept of weak solution able to deal with this scenario, showing in particular how to extend the fundamental notion of differences of chemical potentials that supports the modelling and the analysis in [DDGG16]. We prove the global-in-time existence in this solution class.