Frédéric Coquel

Christophe Berthon, Frédéric Coquel, Philippe G. LeFloch

For a class of nonconservative hyperbolic systems of partial differential equations endowed with a strictly convex mathematical entropy, we formulate the initial value problem by supplementing the equations with a kinetic relation prescribing the rate of entropy dissipation across shock waves. Our condition can be regarded as a generalization to nonconservative systems of a similar concept introduced by Abeyaratne, Knowles, and Truskinovsky for subsonic phase transitions and by LeFloch for nonclassical undercompressive shocks to nonlinear hyperbolic systems. The proposed kinetic relation for nonconservative systems turns out to be equivalent, for the class of systems under consideration at least, to Dal Maso, LeFloch, and Murat's definition based on a prescribed family of Lipschitz continuous paths. In agreement with previous theories, the kinetic relation should be derived from a phase plane analysis of traveling solutions associated with an augmented version of the nonconservative system. We illustrate with several examples that nonconservative systems arising in the applications fit in our framework, and for a typical model of turbulent fluid dynamics, we provide a detailed analysis of the existence and properties of traveling waves which yields the corresponding kinetic function.

Benjamin Boutin, Frédéric Coquel, Philippe G. LeFloch

We continue our analysis of the coupling between nonlinear hyperbolic problems across possibly resonant interfaces. In the first two parts of this series, we introduced a new framework for coupling problems which is based on the so-called thin interface model and uses an augmented formulation and an additional unknown for the interface location; this framework has the advantage of avoiding any explicit modeling of the interface structure. In the present paper, we pursue our investigation of the augmented formulation and we introduce a new coupling framework which is now based on the so-called thick interface model. For scalar nonlinear hyperbolic equations in one space variable, we observe that the Cauchy problem is well-posed. Then, our main achievement in the present paper is the design of a new well-balanced finite volume scheme which is adapted to the thick interface model, together with a proof of its convergence toward the unique entropy solution (for a broad class of nonlinear hyperbolic equations). Due to the presence of a possibly resonant interface, the standard technique based on a total variation estimate does not apply, and DiPerna's uniqueness theorem must be used. Following a method proposed by Coquel and LeFloch, our proof relies on discrete entropy inequalities for the coupling problem and an estimate of the discrete entropy dissipation in the proposed scheme.

Frédéric Coquel, Jean-Marc Hérard, Khaled Saleh

We present a relaxation scheme for approximating the entropy dissipating weak solutions of the Baer-Nunziato two-phase flow model. This relaxation scheme is straightforwardly obtained as an extension of the relaxation scheme designed in [16] for the isentropic Baer-Nunziato model and consequently inherits its main properties. To our knowledge, this is the only existing scheme for which the approximated phase fractions, phase densities and phase internal energies are proven to remain positive without any restrictive condition other than a classical fully computable CFL condition. For ideal gas and stiffened gas equations of state, real values of the phasic speeds of sound are also proven to be maintained by the numerical scheme. It is also the only scheme for which a discrete entropy inequality is proven, under a CFL condition derived from the natural sub-characteristic condition associated with the relaxation approximation. This last property, which ensures the non-linear stability of the numerical method, is satisfied for any admissible equation of state. We provide a numerical study for the convergence of the approximate solutions towards some exact Riemann solutions. The numerical simulations show that the relaxation scheme compares well with two of the most popular existing schemes available for the Baer-Nunziato model, namely Schwendeman-Wahle-Kapila's Godunov-type scheme [39] and Toro-Tokareva's HLLC scheme [42]. The relaxation scheme also shows a higher precision and a lower computational cost (for comparable accuracy) than a standard numerical scheme used in the nuclear industry, namely Rusanov's scheme. Finally, we assess the good behavior of the scheme when approximating vanishing phase solutions.

Benjamin Boutin, Frédéric Coquel, Philippe G. LeFloch

We investigate various analytical and numerical techniques for the coupling of nonlinear hyperbolic systems and, in particular, we introduce here an augmented formulation which allows for the modeling of the dynamics of interfaces between fluid flows. The main technical difficulty to be overcome lies in the possible resonance effect when wave speeds coincide and global hyperbolicity is lost. As a consequence, non-uniqueness of weak solutions is observed for the initial value problem which need to be supplemented with further admissibility conditions. This first paper is devoted to investigating these issues in the setting of self-similar vanishing viscosity approximations to the Riemann problem for general hyperbolic systems. Following earlier works by Joseph, LeFloch, and Tzavaras, we establish an existence theorem for the Riemann problem under fairly general structural assumptions on the nonlinear hyperbolic system and its regularization. Our main contribution consists of nonlinear wave interaction estimates for solutions which apply to resonant wave patterns.

Benjamin Boutin, Frédéric Coquel, Philippe G. LeFloch

This series of papers is devoted to the formulation and the approximation of coupling problems for nonlinear hyperbolic equations. The coupling across an interface in the physical space is formulated in term of an augmented system of partial differential equations. In an earlier work, this strategy allowed us to develop a regularization method based on a thick interface model in one space variable. In the present paper, we significantly extend this framework and, in addition, encompass equations in several space variables. This new formulation includes the coupling of several distinct conservation laws and allows for a possible covering in space. Our main contributions are, on one hand, the design and analysis of a well-balanced finite volume method on general triangulations and, on the other hand, a proof of convergence of this method toward entropy solutions, extending Coquel, Cockburn, and LeFloch's theory (restricted to a single conservation law without coupling). The core of our analysis is, first, the derivation of entropy inequalities as well as a discrete entropy dissipation estimate and, second, a proof of convergence toward the entropy solution of the coupling problem.

Christophe Chalons, Frédéric Coquel

This paper reports investigations on the computation of material fronts in multi-fluid models using a Lagrange-Projection approach. Various forms of the Projection step are considered. Particular attention is paid to minimization of conservation errors.