Study of the Norton-Hoff operator coupled with the evolutive heat equation (Q2371832)

The authors study an initial-boundary value problem (IBVP) for a coupled system of nonlinear partial differential equations linked to a quasi-static viscoplastic flow with thermal effects. The governing equations are the incompressible Norton-Hoff system coupled with time-dependent heat equation with the time-dependent dissipated mechanical power as a volume source term. The viscosity of the fluid is modeled by Arrhenius law coming from metallurgy. The authors prove the global existence of a solution to IBVP. The optimal regularities of the heat solution and of the scale factor are given, and a nonlinear operator describing the coupling is provided. The main ingredients in the proof are the optimal regularity of heat equation with \(L^p\) source term (\(1<p<2\)), the maximum principle and Schauder fixed point theorem. As for the uniqueness of the solution, it is still open.