Elliptic-parabolic variational inequalities with time-dependent constraints (Q2467068)

Consider elliptic-parabolic equations of the type \[ b(u)_t - \nabla\cdot a(x,b(u),\nabla u)= f(t,x), \quad (t,x)\in (0,T)\times \Omega \] where \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^N\), \(b\) is a real bounded, increasing and Lipschitz continuous function, and \(a\) is a quasi-linear elliptic vector field, such that \(a(x,s,p)=\partial_p A(x,s,p)\) for a given potential function \(A:\Omega\times \mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}^N \to \mathbb{R}\). For a given time-dependent convex set \(K(t)\), the authors establish existence, uniqueness and order properties of solutions \(u(t)\) to the following variational inequality \[ \left ( b(u)_t, u-v\right) + \int_\Omega a(x,b(u),\nabla u)\cdot \nabla(u-v) \;dx \leq \left ( f, u-v\right ) \quad v\in K(t), \;0<t<T \] subjected to \(u(t)\in K(t)\), for \(0<t<T\), and \(b(u(0,\cdot))=b_0\) in \(\Omega\). Some applications are presented for particular choices of the constraints, such as Signorini-Dirichlet-Neumann type mixed boundary conditions appearing in the model of flows in partially saturated porous media.