A free boundary problem in an absorbing porous material with saturation dependent permeability (Q5943872)

The authors consider the problem of finding the functions \(\varepsilon (t)\), \(p(x,t)\), \(\varepsilon (x,t)\), \(V(x,t)\) and the time instant \(t_s\) satisfying the system \[ \varepsilon c \frac{\partial p}{\partial t}-(1-S)\frac{\partial \varepsilon}{\partial t}-\frac{\partial}{\partial x} \biggl[k(S, \varepsilon)\frac{\partial p}{\partial x}\biggr]=0, \quad \text{in }Q_{ts}, \] \[ \frac{\partial \varepsilon}{\partial t}+\frac{\partial V}{\partial t}=0,\quad \text{in }Q_{ts}, \] \[ \frac{\partial V}{\partial t}=f(V_{\max}-V)(S-S_0)_+, \quad \text{in }Q_{ts}, \] \[ -k(S, \varepsilon)\frac{\partial p}{\partial x}|_{x=0}=q_0(t),\quad 0<t<t_s,\;p(s(t),t)=0,\;0<t<t_s, \] \[ \dot s (t)=-\frac{k_0}{S_0\varepsilon_0}\frac{\partial p}{\partial x}\biggl|_{x=s(t)},\quad s(0)=0, \quad 0<t<t_s, \] \[ \varepsilon (s(t),t)=\varepsilon_0, \quad V(s(t),t)=V_0,\quad 0<t<t_s, \] where \(Q_{ts}=\{0<x<s(t)\), \(0<t<t_s\}\), \(S=S_0+cp\) and \(0<S<1\) in \(Q_{ts}\). The above scheme models the penetration of a liquid in a porous medium with hydrophile grains in the unsaturated regime (\(\varepsilon\) = porosity, \(V\) = volume fraction in the unsaturated hydrophile grains, \(s(t)\) = penetration depth, \(p\) = pressure). Existence has been proven in a previous paper by the reviewer under the simplifying assumption \(\frac{\partial k}{\partial S}=0\). The extension to the more realistic case \(\frac{\partial k}{\partial S}\not = 0\) is not trivial and is performed here supposing that \(k\) is a \(C^2\) function and that \(\frac{\partial k}{\partial S}>0\). In order to obtain the necessary estimates a suitable barrier for \(p\) is formed, leading to a lower bound to \(\frac{\partial p}{\partial x}\) on the wetting front. Existence of a regular solution is obtained by means of a fixed point argument.