A Hele-Shaw Limit With A Variable Upper Bound and Drift

Abstract

We investigate a generalized Hele-Shaw equation with a source and drift terms where the density is constrained by an upper-bound density constraint that varies in space and time. By using a generalized porous medium equation approximation, we are able to construct a weak solution to the generalized Hele-Shaw equations under mild assumptions. Then we establish uniqueness of weak solutions to the generalized Hele-Shaw equations. Our next main result is a pointwise characterization of the density variable in the generalized Hele-Shaw equations when the system is in the congestion case. To obtain such a characterization for the congestion case, we derive a new uniform lower bounds on the time derivative pressure of the generalized porous medium equation via a refined Aronson-Benilan estimate that implies monotonicity on the density and pressure.