On a phase field model for solid-liquid phase transitions (Q423850)

The authors introduced a new phase field model. The differences between their model and Caginalp like phase field models lie in two places, the first one is the phase field dependent coefficient of the temperature variable in the evolution equation of the phase field \(\varphi\), and the the second one is the nonlinear coefficient of \(\partial_t\varphi\) in the equation for the temperature. The authors study the asymptotic limit of the system as the parameter signifying the width of the diffuse interface tends to zero. By a formal asymptotic analysis, they are able to recover a generalized Stefan sharp interface model with the Gibbs-Thomson equation for surface tension, and jump conditions for the heat flux at the interface. Next, the authors turn their attention to the well-posedness of the phase field system. They prove that, under suitable initial and boundary data, the initial boundary value problem is well posed in both two and three space dimensions. A substantial part of the paper is devoted to proving the existence of weak solutions and the continuous dependence of the solution on the data by means of various a priori and energy estimates.