Boundary value problems for a quasilinear parabolic equation with an unknown coefficient (Q1720289)

The author studies nonlinear parabolic models consisting of a boundary value problem for a quasilinear parabolic equation with an unknown coefficient multiplying the derivative with respect to time, and involves an additional relationship for a time dependence of this coefficient. More specifically, the author considers a system in which the goal is to find functions \(\{u(x,t),\rho(x,t)\}\) in the domain \(\overline{Q}=\{0\leq x\leq l, \;0\leq l\leq T\}\) that solve the following boundary value problem for the quasilinear parabolic equation: \[ c(x,t,u)\rho(x,t)u_t-(a(x,t,u)u_x)_x+b(x,t,u)u_x+d(x,t,u)u=f(x,t), \qquad (x,t)\in Q, \] \[ a(x,t,u)u_x-h(t,u)u\Big|_{x=0}=g(t), \qquad 0\text{<} t \leq T, \] \[ a(x,t,u)u_x+e(t,u)u\Big|_{x=l}=q(t),\qquad 0\text{<} t\leq T, \] \[ u\Big|_{t=0}=\varphi(x), \qquad 0\leq x\leq l. \] It is also required that \[ \rho_t(x,t)=\gamma(x,t,u), \;\;(x,t)\in Q, \;\;\rho(x,t)\Big|_{t=0}=\rho^0(x), \;\;0\leq x\leq l. \] Further assumptions are made on \(a, c, \rho^0, h, e\), and the function \(\gamma\) is also required to satisfy certain additional requirements. Such system is especially relevant to modeling high temperature processes, as it allows one to take into account the dependence of thermophysical characteristics upon the temperature. The main goal is to prove unique solvability in a class of smooth functions. The proof follows using the Rothe method. The key ingredient is the proof of a priori estimates in the difference-continuous Hölder spaces for the corresponding differential-difference nonlinear system that approximates the original system by the Rothe method. Such estimates then allow the author to establish the existence of smooth solutions and to obtain error estimates of the approximate solution.