Blow-up problems for the heat equation with a local nonlinear Neumann boundary condition (Q294215)

The authors are concerned with the study of the blow-up time for the semilinear heat equation \(u_t=\Delta u\) in \(\Omega\times (0,T]\) subject to boundary conditions \(\frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu}=u^q\) on \(\Gamma_1\times (0,T]\), \(\frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu}=0\) on \(\Gamma_2\times (0,T]\) and initial condition \(u(x,0)=u_0(x)\) in \(\Omega\). Here \(\Omega\subset{\mathbb{R}}^n\) \((n\geq 2)\) is a bounded open set with \(C^2\) boundary \(\partial\Omega=\overline \Gamma_1\cup \overline\Gamma_2\), \(q>1\), \(0\leq u_0\in C^1(\overline\Omega)\), \(u_0\not\equiv 0\). First, the authors prove that the above problem has a maximal solution \(u^\ast\) defined in a maximal time interval \((0,T^\ast)\), with \(T^\ast<\infty\). Next, the authors are concerned with upper and lower bounds for \(T^\ast\). It is established that \[ T^\ast\leq \frac{1}{(q-1)|\Gamma_1|}\int_{\Omega}u_0^{1-q}(x)dx \] and \[ T^\ast\geq C^{-2/(n+2)}\Big[ \ln(|\Gamma_1|^{-1})-(n+2)(q-1)\ln M_0-\ln(q-1)-\ln C\big]^{2/(n+2)}, \] where \(C=C(\Omega, n ,q)>0\) is bounded as \(q\to 1\). Numerical experiments are also presented in order to emphasize the role played by the size of \(|\Gamma_1|\) in the estimation of \(T^\ast\).