2016, Dziwnik, Marion, Jachalski, Sebastian

We prove existence of solutions to an anisotropic Cahn-Hilliard-type equation with degenerate diffusional mobility. In particular, the mobility vanishes at the pure phases, which is typically used to model motion by surface diffusion. The main difficulty of the present existence result is the strong non-linearity given by the fourth-order anisotropic operator. Imposing particular assumptions on the domain and assuming that the strength of the anisotropy is sufficiently small enables to establish appropriate auxiliary results which play an essential part in the present existence proof. In addition to the existence we show that the absolute value of the corresponding solutions is bounded by 1.

2019, Druet, Pierre-Étienne, Jüngel, Ansgar

The convective transport in a multicomponent isothermal compressible fluid subject to the mass continuity equations is considered. The velocity is proportional to the negative pressure gradient, according to Darcy?s law, and the pressure is defined by a state equation imposed by the volume extension of the mixture. These model assumptions lead to a parabolic-hyperbolic system for the mass densities. The global-in-time existence of classical and weak solutions is proved in a bounded domain with no-penetration boundary conditions. The idea is to decompose the system into a porous-medium-type equation for the volume extension and transport equations for the modified number fractions. The existence proof is based on parabolic regularity theory, the theory of renormalized solutions, and an approximation of the velocity field.

2011, Colli, Pierluigi, Gilardi, Gianni, Podio-Guidugli, Paola, Sprekels, Jürgen

This paper is concerned with a diffusion model of phase-field type, consisting of a parabolic system of two partial differential equations, interpreted as balances of microforces and microenergy, for two unknowns: the problem's order parameter $rho$ and the chemical potential $mu$; each equation includes a viscosity term -- respectively, $varepsilon,partial_tmu$ and $delta,partial_trho$ -- with $varepsilon$ and $delta$ two positive parameters; the field equations are complemented by Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions and suitable initial conditions. In a recent paper [5], we proved that this problem is well-posed and investigated the long-time behavior of its $(varepsilon,delta)-$solutions. Here we discuss the asymptotic limit of the system as $eps$ tends to 0. We prove convergence of $(varepsilon,delta)-$solutions to the corresponding solutions for the case $eps$ =0, whose long-time behavior we characterize; in the proofs, we employ compactness and monotonicity arguments.

2009, Gruber, Peter, Knees, Dorothee, Nesenenko, Sergiy, Thomas, Marita

In this paper some analytical and numerical aspects of time-dependent models with internal variables are discussed. The focus lies on elasto/visco-plastic models of monotone type arising in the theory of inelastic behavior of materials. This class of problems includes the classical models of elasto-plasticity with hardening and viscous models of the Norton-Hoff type. We discuss the existence theory for different models of monotone type, give an overview on spatial regularity results for solutions to such models and illustrate a numerical solution algorithm at an example. Finally, the relation to the energetic formulation for rate-independent processes is explained and temporal regularity results based on different convexity assumptions are presented

2012, Colli, Pierluigi, Gilardi, Gianni, Podio-Guidugli, Paolo, Sprekels, Jürgen

This note is concerned with a nonlinear diffusion problem of phase-field type, consisting of a parabolic system of two partial differential equations, complemented by Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions and initial conditions. The system arises from a model of two-species phase segregation on an atomic lattice [Podio-Guidugli 2006]; it consists of the balance equations of microforces and microenergy; the two unknowns are the order parameter $rho$ and the chemical potential $mu$. Some recent results obtained for this class of problems is reviewed and, in the case of a nonconstant and nonlinear atom mobility, uniqueness and continuous dependence on the initial data are shown with the help of a new line of argumentation developed in Colli/Gilardi/Podio-Guidugli/Sprekels 2012.

2016, Albers, Bettina, Krejc̆í, Pavel, Rocca, Elisabetta

A PDE system consisting of the momentum balance, mass balance, and energy balance equations for displacement, capillary pressure, and temperature as a model for unsaturated fluid flow in a porous viscoelastoplastic solid is shown to admit a solution under appropriate assumptions on the constitutive behavior. The problem involves two hysteresis operators accounting for plastic and capillary hysteresis.

2012, Colli, Pierluigi, Gilardi, Gianni, Podio-Guidugli, Paolo, Sprekels, Jürgen

Existence and uniqueness are investigated for a nonlinear diffusion problem of phase-field type, consisting of a parabolic system of two partial differential equations, complemented by Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions and initial conditions. This system aims to model two-species phase segregation on an atomic [19]; in the balance equations of microforces and microenergy, the two unknowns are the order parameter $rho$ and the chemical potential $mu$. A simpler version of the same system has recently been discussed in [8]. In this paper, a fairly more general phase-field equation for $rho$ is coupled with a genuinely nonlinear diffusion equation for $mu$. The existence of a global-in-time solution is proved with the help of suitable a priori estimates. In the case of costant atom mobility, a new and rather unusual uniqueness proof is given, based on a suitable combination of variables.