Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T21:11:09.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The thermistor problem with conductivity vanishing for large temperature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2011

Xiangsheng Xu
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, U.S.A

Abstract

We consider the system (∂/∂t)u = ∆u + σ(u)|∇φ|2, div (σ(u)∇φ) = 0 in a bounded region of ℝN coupled with initial and boundary conditions, where σ(s) ∈ C(ℝ) is nonnegative and σ(u) = 0 if and only if ua for some a > 0. Owing to the degeneracy involved, solutions of the problem display new phenomena that cannot be incorporated into the classical weak formulation. The notion of a capacity solution introduced in [14,15] is employed to study the problem. It turns out that this notion of a solution is just general enough to encompass the new phenomena involved.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Biagioni, H. A.. A Nonlinear Theory of Generalized Functions, Lecture Notes in Mathematics 1421 (Berlin: Springer, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Chen, X. and Friedman, A.. The thermistor problem for conductivity which vanishes at large temperature (IMA Preprint Series #792, University of Minnesota, 1991).Google Scholar
3Chen, X. and Friedman, A.. The thermistor problem with one-zero conductivity (IMA Preprint Series #793, University of Minnesota, 1991).Google Scholar
4Cimatti, G.. A bound for the temperature in the thermistor's problem. IMA J. Appl. Math. 40 (1988), 1522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5Cimatti, G.. Remarks on existence and uniqueness for the thermistor problem under mixed boundary conditions. Quart. Appl. Math. 47 (1989), 117121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Cimatti, G.. Existence of weak solutions for the nonstationary problem of the Joule heating of a conductor. Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (to appear).Google Scholar
7Cimatti, G. and Prodi, G.. Existence results for a nonlinear elliptic system modeling a temperature dependent electrical resistor. Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. 63(1988), 227236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8DiPerna, R. and Majda, A.. Oscillations and concentrations in weak solutions of the incopressible fluid equations. Common. Math. Phys. 108 (1987), 667689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Evans, L. C.. Weak Convergence Methods for Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations (Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Howison, S. D., Rodrigues, J. E. and Shillor, M.. Existence results for the problem of Joule heating of a resistor (preprint).Google Scholar
11Kinderlehrer, D. and Stampacchia, G.. An Introduction to Variational Inequalities and Their Applications (New York: Academic Press, 1980).Google Scholar
12Shi, P., Shillor, M. and Xu, X.. Existence of a solution to the Stefan problem with Joule's heating. J. Differential Equations 105 (1993), 239263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Xie, H. and Allegretto, W.. Cα(#) solutions of a class of nonlinear degenerate elliptic systems arising in the thermistor problem. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 22 (1991), 14911499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Xu, X.. A strong degenerate system involving an equation of parabolic type and an equation of elliptic type. Commun. Partial Differential Equations 18 (1993), 199213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15Xu, X.. An degenerate Stefan-like problem with Joule's heating. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 23 (1992), 14171438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar