J Austral Math Soc Ser B 36 pp438--459, 1995.

Fast diffusion with loss at infinity

J. R. Philip

(Received 3 May 1993; revised 17 September 1993)

Abstract

We study the equation

¶q/t = r 1 - s /r (r s - 1q m ¶q/r)    in 0 £ r £ ¥    with q ³ 0, s > 0.    (A)

Here s is not necessarily integral; m is initially unrestricted. Material-conserving instantaneous source solutions of A are reviewed as an entrée to material-losing solutions. Simple physical arguments show that solutions for a finite slug losing material at infinity at a finite nonzero rate can exist only for the following m-ranges: 0 < s < 2, -2s -1 < m £ -1; s > 2, -1 < m < -2s -1. The result for s = 1 was known previously. The case s = 2, m = -1, needs further investigation. Three different similarity schemes all lead to the same ordinary differential equation. For 0 < s < 2, parameter g (0 < g < ¥) in that equation discriminates between the three classes of solution: class 1 gives the concentration scale decreasing as a negative power of (1 + t / T); 2 gives exponential decrease; and 3 gives decrease as a positive power of (1 - t / T), the solution vanishing at t = T < ¥. Solutions for s = 1, m = -3/2 are presented graphically. The variation of concentration and flux profiles with increasing g is physically explicable in terms of increasing flux at infinity. An indefinitely large number of exact solutions are found for s = 1, g = 1. These demonstrate the systematic variation of solution properties as m decreases from -1 toward -2 at fixed g.

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Author

J. R. Philip
CSIRO Centre for Environmental Mechanics, Canberra, Australia, 2061.

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