Analysis of a scalar conservation law with a flux function with discontinuous coefficients (Q2501623)

The author studies the Cauchy problem for a conservation law \(u_t+(k(x)g(u)+f(u))_x=0\) with discontinuous coefficient \(k(x)\), and \(f(u), g(u)\in C^1([0,1])\) such that \(f(0)=g(0)=g(1)=0\). It is demonstrated that such equations arise in models for a two-phase flow in porous media. Existence and uniqueness of an entropy solution is proved for any initial data \(u_0(x)\in L^\infty({\mathbb R})\), \(0\leq u_0(x)\leq 1\), under some additional hypotheses on the functions \(f(u),g(u)\) and \(k(x)\).