Convergence to the Stefan problem of the phase relaxation problem with Cattaneo heat flux law. (Q698282)

Combining the hyperbolic heat conduction law \(\alpha \frac{\partial q} {\partial t}+q=-\nabla \theta\) and the phase relaxation dynamics \(\varepsilon \frac{\partial \chi}{\partial t}+H^{-1}(\chi)\ni \theta\), the authors formulate a fully hyperbolic model for phase transition. Here \(q\) is the heat flux, \(\theta\) the relative temperature, \(\chi\) the phase variable. The equations above are used together with the balance law \(\frac{\partial(\theta+\chi)}{\partial t}+\text{div} q=g\). The problem is reduced to a form with homogeneous boundary data and a weak formulation is stated in an appropriate functional space. Existence is proved by means of a regularization procedure. The main scope of the paper is to show that all solutions (\(\theta_{\alpha, \epsilon}, \chi_{\alpha, \epsilon}, q_{\alpha, \epsilon})\) tend to the solution of the unrelaxed Stefan problem (in a suitable sense) when \(\alpha, \epsilon\) tend to zero. The proof is based on a compactness argument and on a fundamental estimate emphasizing the influence of the relaxation parameters and allowing to pass to the limit in the weak formulation when \(\alpha, \epsilon \to 0\).