Hyperbolic conservation laws with space-dependent flux. I: Characteristics theory and Riemann problem (Q1398419)

This paper is devoted to a one-dimensional scalar conservation law with flux denoted by \(f(u,x)\), or more generally by \(f(u,a(x))\), where \(a(x)\) often represents some physical quantities in such problems as traffic flow models, two-phase flow in porous media, continuous sedimentation, etc. The characteristics of the equation here are not straight lines and the theoretical results developed so far are seldom available. At the same time, efficient schemes for common conservation laws may be unable to straightly apply to current case. Here the authors present some necessary and sufficient conditions that ensure the unique physically relevant solution to the Riemann problem. The flux generated from the Riemann's solver is tested through comparison with exact solutions by other numerical fluxes.