On the Navier-stokes Equations for Exothermically Reacting Compressible Fluids

We analyze mathematical models governing planar flow of chemical reaction from unburnt gases to burnt gases in certain physical regimes in which diffusive effects such as viscosity and heat conduction are significant. These models can be then formulated as the Navier-Stokes equations for exothermically reacting compressible fluids. We first establish the existence and dynamic behavior, including stability, regularity, and large-time behavior, of global discontinuous solutions of large oscillation to the Navier-Stokes equations with constant adiabatic exponent γ and specific heat cv . Our approach for the existence and regularity is to combine the difference approximation techniques with the energy methods, total variation estimates, and weak convergence arguments to deal with large jump discontinuities; and for large-time behavior is an a posteriori argument directly from the weak form of the equations. The approach and ideas we develop here can be applied to solving a more complicated model where γ and cv vary as the phase changes; and we then describe this model in detail and contrast the results on the asymptotic behavior of the solutions of these two different models. We also discuss other physical models describing dynamic combustion.