Free boundary value problem of the one-dimensional model of polytropic ideal gas (Q803434)

The one-dimensional free boundary value problem of the polytropic ideal gas is studied. The equation has four unknowns; the density \(\rho\), the velocity u, the absolute temperature \(\theta\), and the free boundary X(t), and is described as \[ \rho_ t+(\rho u)_ x=0;\quad (\rho u)_ t+(\rho u^ 2+p)_ x=(\mu u_ x)_ x, \] \[ \{\rho (e+u^ 2/2)\}_ t+\{\rho u(e+u^ 2/2)+pu\}_ x=(\kappa \theta_ x)_ x+(\mu uu_ x)_ x, \] for \(t>0\), \(X(t)<x<0\), with the initial condition \[ (\rho,u,\theta)(0,x)=(\rho_ 0,u_ 0,\theta_ 0)(x),\quad d\leq x\leq 0\quad (X(0)=d), \] \[ \rho_ 0,\theta_ 0>0\text{ on } (d,0],\quad \rho_ 0(d)=\theta_ 0(d)=0, \] and the boundary condition \[ u(t,0)=\theta_ x(t,0)=0,\quad \rho (t,X(t))=\theta (t,X(t))=0;\quad dX(t)/dt=u(t,X(t)),\quad t>0. \] Here, \(p=R\rho \theta\) and \(e=R\theta /(\gamma -1)\), \(R>0\), \(\gamma >1\), \(\kappa >0\), and \(\mu >0\) being physical constants. Sought is the weak solution (\(\rho\),\(\theta\),u) belonging to a class of function spaces and satisfying the above equation in integral form. By the well known change of the variables (t,x) into \((t',x')\); \(t'=t\), \(x'=\int^{x}_{0}\rho (t,\xi)d\xi\), the problem is transformed into the initial-boundary value problem with the fixed boundary (after rescaling and dropping the primes): \[ \rho_ t+\rho^ 2u_ x=0;\quad u_ t+a(\rho \theta)_ x=\mu (\rho u_ x)_ x, \] \[ \theta_ t+a\rho \theta u_ x=\mu \rho u^ 2_ x+\kappa (\rho \theta_ x)_ x,\quad t>0,\quad 0<x<1, \] with the transformed initial and the boundary conditions. Similar problems have been studied so far. The difficulty here is that \(\rho_ 0\) is not bounded away from 0. By assuming instead a nonnegative lower bound for \(\rho_ 0\), a finite difference scheme in space is proposed to construct a series of functions which approximates a weak solution with sufficiently small \(\theta_ 0\) and \(u_ 0\). An exponential decay in time for \(\theta\) and u is also obtained, the decay rate being independent of small \(\theta_ 0\) and \(u_ 0\).