Rigorous Derivation of the Kuramoto-sivashinsky Equation in a 2d Weakly Nonlinear Stefan Problem

In this paper we are interested in a rigorous derivation of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation (K–S) in a Free Boundary Problem. As a paradigm, we consider a two-dimensional Stefan problem in a strip, a simplified version of a solid-liquid interface model. Near the instability threshold, we introduce a small parameter ε and define rescaled variables accordingly. At fixed ε, our method is based on: definition of a suitable linear 1D operator, projection with respect to the longitudinal coordinate only, Lyapunov-Schmidt method. As a solvability condition, we derive a self-consistent parabolic equation for the front. We prove that, starting from the same configuration, the latter remains close to the solution of K–S on a fixed time interval, uniformly in ε sufficiently small.