Transonic shocks and free boundary problems for the full Euler equations in infinite nozzles (Q2381658)

The authors consider a 2D semi-infinite nozzle \(\Omega =\{x_{1}>1\) ; \(\zeta _{0}(x_{1})<x_{2}<\zeta _{1}(x_{1})\}\), where transonic flows may occur. The problem is modelled as a full Euler system of steady equations involving the velocity, the pressure and the density of the fluid. The authors assume that an incoming supersonic flow is present at the entrance \(\Omega \cap \{-1<x_{1}<1\}\). They look for a shock \(\{x_{1}=s(x_{2})\}\) and for a downstream subsonic flow in the domain \(\Omega \cap \{x_{1}>s(x_{2})\}\). In the main result, the authors give a positive answer to this existence problem, assuming some hypotheses on the incoming flow. They prove that this transonic flow is unique in some class of transonic flows. The proof is elaborated introducing some Lagrangian coordinates attached to the flow in order to simplify the problem. The problem is thus transformed in a free boundary problem in the nozzle. They then build some analytic computations studying an ordinary differential equation of Bernoulli type and a second-order nonlinear elliptic equation for some potential function. Then the authors study some further problems within this context. The paper ends with some further properties of the transonic flow: asymptotic behaviour at infinity and shock stability.