Mathematical analysis of a sharp-diffuse interfaces model for seawater intrusion (Q2355413)

In this work, the authors consider a model for seawater intrusion phenomena that is a mixture of sharp and diffuse interface models. The model considered takes advantage of the so-called Dupuit approximation, where hydraulic head is considered constant in each vertical direction, thus effectively reducing the problem from 3D to 2D. A phase-field Allen-Cahn model in fluid/fluid context, where diffuse transition zones are present, is also included in the model. The resulting model then consists of a system of strongly and nonlinearly coupled PDEs of parabolic type. The article is organized as follows: At first, the authors present a detailed derivation of the sharp-diffuse interface model. The main result, which is the existence of physically admissible weak solutions for the model, is then stated. The proof of the main result utilizes a Schauder fixed point theorem for auxiliary regularized and truncated problems. Here, the authors regularize a step function with a parameter \(\epsilon>0\) and introduce a weight based on the velocity of the freshwater front in one of the equations. It is also shown that the regularized solution satisfies a maximum principle. The authors derive some uniform estimates with respect to \(\epsilon\), and these estimates prove to be essential in establishing the main result on the existence of weak solutions.