Solution of degenerate parabolic systems by relaxation schemes (Q4378908)

The author studies the approximate solution of parabolic systems of the form \[ \partial_tb(x,u)-\nabla a(t,x,u,\nabla u)=f(t,x,u) \;\text{in} I\times\Omega,\;I\equiv (0,T), \;T<\infty \] with the mixed boundary conditions \(u=0\;\text{on} \Gamma_1\times I, \;a(t,x,u,\nabla u)\cdot \nu=g(t,x,u)\) on \(\Gamma_2\times I\) and with the initial condition \(b(x,u(x,0))=b(x,u_0)\). Here \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^N\) is a bounded domain with Lipschitz continuous boundary \(\partial\Omega\), and \(\Gamma_1, \Gamma_2\) are open in \(\partial\Omega\) with \(\text{mes}_{N-1}\Gamma_1+\text{mes}_{N-1}\Gamma_2= \text{mes}_{N-1}\partial\Omega\), \(\Gamma_1\cap\Gamma_2=\varnothing\), \(\text{mes}_{N-1}\Gamma_1>0\) and \(b(x,u)= \nabla_u\phi (x,u)\) where \(\phi(x,u)\) is strictly convex in \(u\in \mathbb{R}^m\) for all \(x\in\Omega\). The elliptic part generated by \(a(t,x,\eta,\xi)\) is monotone and coercive in \(\xi\), and a polynomial growth of \(a\) in \(\xi\) is assumed. This system includes some models of unsaturated flows in porous media and is an approximation of an unsaturated-saturated flow in porous media when \(\phi(x,u)\) is only convex in \(u\). The author proves the convergence of the proposed numerical scheme for this parabolic systems.