Metastable behavior of premixed gas flames in rectangular channels (Q1769401)

The authors study a 2D model for an upward propagating flame in a vertical square channel. The nonlinear and nonlocal parabolic equation is : \(\Phi _{t}-\varepsilon \Delta \Phi -\left| \nabla \Phi \right| ^{2}/2=\Phi -\left\langle \Phi \right\rangle \), posed in \(D\times \left( 0,+\infty \right) \), where \(\left\langle \Phi \right\rangle \) represents the mean of \( \Phi \) on the unit square \(D\). The solution \(\Phi \) starts from an initial condition \(\Phi _{0}\) at \(t=0\). Homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions are imposed on the boundary \(\partial D\times \left( 0,+\infty \right) \). After some easy transformation, the nonlocal term can be removed. The authors prove, under certain assumptions on \(\Phi _{0}\), that the maximal point on the flame interface stays off the boundary for an exponentially long time. More precisely, they prove that this maximum remains in some rectangle associated to the conditions on \(\Phi _{0}\), for an exponentially long time. Numerical computations motivate this analysis. The 1D version of the problem has already been presented by some of the authors, which is based on the study of the differential equation \( \varepsilon f^{\prime \prime }-ff^{\prime }+f=0\), in \(\left( 0,1\right) \), with the homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions \(f\left( 0\right) =0=f\left( 1\right) \). In the present 2D case, the authors build the equations satisfied by \(-\partial \Phi /\partial x\) or \(-\partial \Phi /\partial y\) and prove some comparison principles for the derived equations. The functions to which they compare the above partial derivatives of \(\Phi \) are deduced from the 1D case.