Boundary layer formation in the transition from the porous media equation to a Hele-Shaw flow. (Q1868104)

There is studied the behaviour as \(m\rightarrow\infty\) of sequence of nonnegative solutions \(u_m(x,t)\) to the following Cauchy-Dirichlet problems: \[ u_t=\Delta \varphi_m(u) \text \quad \text {in } \Omega \times \mathbb{R}^+, \;\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n, \quad n \geq{1}, \] \[ \varphi_m(u)=g \geq 0 \text \quad \text{on }\partial \Omega \times \mathbb{R}^+, \quad \varphi_m(s)\equiv s^m, \] \[ u(x,0)=f(x)\geq 0. \] There is proved the convergence of the pair \(\left(u_m,v_m\equiv\varphi_m(u_m)\right)\) to the pair \((u_{\infty},v_{\infty})\), which is weak solution of the nonstationary Hele-Shaw problem \[ u_t=\Delta v, \quad v=\varphi_{\infty}(u), \] \[ v=g \text \quad \text {on }\partial\Omega\times\mathbb{R}^+, \] \[ u(x,0)=\overline{f}(x), \] where \(\overline{f}(x)\) is the projection of the initial data \(f(x)\) into a ``mesa''. It is proved the convergence of the positivity sets of the functions \(u_m\) to the positivity set of \(u_{\infty}\) too. For large but finite \(m\) a boundary layer connectiny the initial data \(f(x)\) and its projection \(\overline{f}(x)\) appears. There is analyzed the convergence of solutions and positivity sets in this layer by introducing a suitable time scale.