Analysis of some heterogeneous catalysis models with fast sorption and fast surface chemistry (Q2062854)

The paper deals with well-posedness theory for semilinear diffusion reaction systems arising in the modelling of catalysis. In a space-time cylinder \((0,T) \times \Omega\), where \(\Omega \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n\) is possibly unbounded, the concentractions \(c_1, \ldots, c_N\) of \(N > 1\) chemical species are subject to \[ \partial_t \mathbf{c} - \mathbf{D} \, \Delta \mathbf{c} = \mathbf{r}(\mathbf{c}) \, . \tag{1} \] Here we have \(\mathbf{c} = (c_1, \ldots,c_N)\) the vector of concentrations, \(\mathbf{D} = \text{diag}(d_1, \ldots,d_N)\) is the diffusion matrix with positive diagonals \(d_1, \ldots,d_N\), and \(\mathbf{r}(\mathbf{c})\) is the bulk reaction term, for which a standard mass--action law is assumed. The originality of the problem under study comes from the boundary conditions. The assumption of boundary reactions reaching equilibrium instantaneously yields on \((0,T) \times \partial \Omega\) the model \begin{gather*} \mathbf{e}^k \cdot \mathbf{D} \, \partial_{\mathbf{n}} \mathbf{c} = 0 \quad \text{ for } k = 1,\ldots, n_{\Sigma} = N - m_{\Sigma} \, ,\tag{2} \\ \mathbf{c}^{\nu^{a}} = \kappa_a \quad \text{ for } a = 1,\ldots, m_{\Sigma} \, . \tag{3} \end{gather*} Here \(\nu^{1}, \ldots,\nu^{m_{\Sigma}} \in \mathbb{Z}^N\) are stoichiometric vectors for \(0 \leq m_{\Sigma} < N\) boundary reactions, \(\mathbf{e}^1,\ldots,\mathbf{e}^{n_{\Sigma}}\) is some basis of the orthogonal complement \([\nu^{1}, \ldots,\nu^{m_{\Sigma}}]^{\perp}\) to the stoichiometric vectors, and \(\kappa_1, \ldots,\kappa_{m_{\Sigma}}\) are positive constants. The boundary conditions (2) and (3) couple the variables on the boundary via a complex system of mixed Neumann and nonlinear Dirichlet type. Standard initial conditions \(\mathbf{c}(0, \, x) = \mathbf{c}^0(x)\) are further considered. The authors prove two type of results for (1), (2), (3). At first, if the initial data are smooth and sufficiently regular, they establish the local well-posedness in the strong solution class \(W^{(1,2)}_p((0,T)\times \Omega)\) with \(p > (n+2)/2\), and in the classical solution class \(C^{1+\alpha,2+2\alpha}(\overline{(0,T) \times \Omega})\) with \(\alpha > 0\). Moreover, the local strict positivity of solutions emanating from positive initial data is established. These results are obtained by means of a contraction principle, since the linearisation of (1), (2), (3) yields a parabolic initial-boundary-value problem of the general form and is invertible - as shown for instance in the monograph by Ladyzhenskaja, Solonnikov and Uraltseva. At second, the authors present diverse uniform estimates in weaker norms, which result from the physically consistent modelling and the availability of an entropy functional. Finally, in a longer appendix, an attempt is made to extend the very general theory of Banach-space-valued parabolic systems developed by \textit{R. Denk} et al. [Math. Z. 257, No. 1, 193--224 (2007; Zbl 1210.35066)], for the treatment of boundary conditions resulting from the linearisation of (2), (3) in the context of infinite-dimensional parabolic systems.