No label defined (Q4248955)

The author considers the following problem: Let \(\Omega\) (representing a porous medium) with boundary \(\Gamma\) be a bounded, locally Lipschitz, domain in \(\mathbb R^n\) (\(n\geq 2\)). Assuming that the flow in \(\Omega\) has reached a steady state, one has to find the preasure \(p\) of the fluid and the subset \(S\) of \(\Omega\), where \(p>0\) (the saturated region of the porous medium). The boundary of \(S\) is divided into four parts: an impervious part \(\Gamma_1\), a free boundary \(\Gamma_2\), a part covered by the fluid \(\Gamma_3\), and \(\Gamma_4\) where the fluid flows outside \(\Omega\). Using some multivalued functions the author gives a unified formalism for the so--called dam problem with different boundary conditions (Dirichlet or leaky ones) and proves existence results both for bounded and unbounded domains. For a bounded problem, a sequence of approximate problems having solutions (the Schauder fixed point theorem arguments) is considered, while for unbounded case a solution has been obtained as a limit of a sequence of solutions for bounded subdomains, similarly as in [\textit{M. Chipot} and the author, Pitman Res. Notes Math. Ser. 325, 64-73 (1995; Zbl 0834.35144) ] for a problem with leaky boundary condition. It is worth to mention that in [ \textit{G. Gilardi} and \textit{D. Kröner}, Ann. Mat. Pura Appl., IV. Ser. 164, 321-364 (1993; Zbl 0787.76086)] an existence result for the problem of an unbounded dam with linear Darcy's law and Dirichlet boundary conditions on the bottom of the reservoirs has been obtained by regularization method. The bibliography contains 33 items.