Propagation of density-oscillations in solutions to the barotropic compressible Navier-Stokes system (Q2460210)

The author considers the motion of a barotropic compressible and viscous fluid described through the system \(\rho _{t}+div(\rho \mathbf {u})=0\) ; \( (\rho \mathbf {u})_{t}+div(\rho \mathbf {u}\otimes \mathbf {u})+\nabla p=\mu \Delta \mathbf {u}+(\lambda +\mu )\nabla div(\mathbf {u})\), posed in \( (0,T)\times \Omega \), where \(\Omega \) is a smooth, open and bounded subset of \(R^{3}\). Here \(\rho \) is the density, \(\mathbf {u}\) the velocity and \(p\) the pressure of the fluid. The pressure and the density are linked through the constitutive equation \(p=a\rho ^{\gamma }\), with \(\gamma \) positive. Homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed on \((0,T)\times \partial \Omega \). The velocity starts from \(\mathbf {u}^{0}\) and \((\rho \mathbf {u})(0)=\mathbf {m}^{0}\). The author first recalls the existence and uniqueness results which have been proved in the case where \(\rho ^{0}\) is positive. Then, he recalls the existence results obtained by \textit{P. L. Lions} [Mathematical topics in fluid mechanics. Vol. 2: Compressible models. Oxford Lecture Series in Mathematics and its Applications. 10. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1998; Zbl 0908.76004)], then extended by \textit{E. Feireisl} et al. [Math. Methods Appl. Sci. 25, No. 12, 1045--1073 (2002; Zbl 0996.35051)] and concerning the case where vacuum may occur (\(\rho ^{0}\geq 0\)). Here at least one globally finite-energy weak solution exists. The purpose of the paper is to describe the asymptotic behavior of bounded sequences \((\rho _{n},\mathbf {u}_{n})_{n}\) of such finite-energy weak solutions. The sequence \((\rho _{n})_{n}\) (resp. \((\mathbf {u}_{n})_{n}\) ) is indeed supposed to converge to some \(\rho \) (resp. \(\mathbf {u}\)) in \( L^{\infty }(0,T;L^{\gamma }(\Omega ))\)-weak\(^{\ast }\) (resp. \( L^{2}(0,T;H_{0}^{1}(\Omega ))\)-weak). The main result of the paper characterizes the limit \((\rho ,\mathbf {u})\) in terms of a measurable family of probability measures. This leads to an ``homogenized'' problem involving Young measures. The author then studies this homogenized problem, proving an existence and uniqueness result in an appropriate functional space. He also presents some further properties of the solution of this homogenized problem.