A nonlocal problem modelling ohmic heating with variable thermal conductivity (Q5952940)

The asymptotic behaviour and blow-up of solutions of an initial boundary value problem for a one-dimensional nonlinear parabolic equation having a nonlocal source term is studied in the paper. The conduction term of the form \((u^3u_x)_x\) comes by assuming the Stefan-Boltzman law for emission of thermal radiation. The nonlinear source term is referred to as nonlocal because of the integral in the denominator. The conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the problem are established by using comparison techniques. If the stationary solution is unique, then it is globally asymptotically stable. It is shown that there exists a critical value for the magnitude of the source term so that for all its values above the critical one there is no stationary solution while the time-dependent solution blows up globally.