Contact discontinuities for 3-D axisymmetric inviscid compressible flows in infinitely long cylinders

Abstract

We prove the existence of a subsonic axisymmetric weak solution $({\bf u},\rho,p)$ with ${\bf u}=u_x{\bf e}_x+u_r{\bf e}_r+u_\theta{\bf e}_{\theta}$ to steady Euler system in a three-dimensional infinitely long cylinder $\mathcal{N}$ when prescribing the values of the entropy $(=\frac{p}{\rho^{\gamma}})$ and angular momentum density $(=ru_{\theta})$ at the entrance by piecewise $C^2$ functions with a discontinuity on a curve on the entrance of $\mathcal{N}$. Due to the variable entropy and angular momentum density (=swirl) conditions with a discontinuity at the entrance, the corresponding solution has a nonzero vorticity, nonzero swirl, and contains a contact discontinuity $r=g_D(x)$. We construct such a solution via Helmholtz decomposition. The key step is to decompose the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions on the contact discontinuity via Helmholtz decomposition so that the compactness of approximated solutions can be achieved. Then we apply the method of iteration to obtain a piecewise smooth subsonic flow with a contact discontinuity, nonzero vorticity, and nonzero angular momentum density. We also analyze the asymptotic behavior of the solution at far field.