The Westervelt--Pennes--Cattaneo model: local well-posedness and singular limit for vanishing relaxation time

Abstract

In this work, we investigate a mathematical model of nonlinear ultrasonic heating based on a coupled system of the Westervelt equation and the hyperbolic Pennes bioheat equation (Westervelt--Pennes--Cattaneo model). Using the energy method together with a fixed point argument, we prove that our model is locally well-posed and does not degenerate under a smallness assumption on the pressure data in the Westervelt equation. In addition, we perform a singular limit analysis and show that the Westervelt--Pennes--Fourier model can be seen as an approximation of the Westervelt--Pennes--Cattaneo model as the relaxation parameter tends to zero. This is done by deriving uniform bounds of the solution with respect to the relaxation parameter.