A limiting ``viscosity'' approach to the Riemann problem for materials exhibiting change of phase (Q914066)

The author considers the Riemann problem P for a class of materials with changes of phase. By means of some variants of the viscosity method, a boundary value problem \(P_{\epsilon}\) for a coupled system of non- autonomous ordinary differential equations is considered. When the data are in different phases there is a solution of \(P_{\epsilon}\) which exhibits one change of phase. By means of a priori estimates, the problem \(P_{\epsilon}\) is solvable and conditions in order that solutions possess limits as \(\epsilon\to 0\) are given.