In this paper, we study the nonlinear stability of travelling wave solutions with shock profile for a relaxation model with a nonconvex flux, which is proposed by Jin and Xin [<i>Comm. Pure Appl. Math.</i>, 48 (1995), pp. 555--563] to approximate an original hyperbolic system numerically under the subcharacteristic condition introduced by T. P. Liu [<i>Comm. Math. Phys.</i>, 108 (1987), pp. 153--175]. The travelling wave solutions with strong shock profile are shown to be asymptotically stable under small disturbances with integral zero using an elementary but technical energy method. Proofs involve detailed study of the error equation for disturbances using the same weight function introduced in [<i>Comm. Math. Phys.</i>, 165 (1994), pp. 83--96].

We consider the optimization approach to the acousto-electric imaging problem. Assuming that the electric conductivity distribution is a small perturbation of a constant, we investigate the least-squares estimate analytically using (multiple) Fourier series, and confirm the widely observed fact that acousto-electric imaging has high resolution and is statistically stable. We also analyze the case of partial data and the case of limited-view data, in which some singularities of the conductivity can still be imaged.

We present a domain decomposition method on a semilinear hyperbolic system with multiple relaxation times. In the region where the relaxation time is small, an asymptotic equilibrium equation can be used for computational efficiency. An interface condition based on the sign of the characteristic speed at the interface is provided to couple the two systems in a domain decomposition setting. A rigorous analysis, based on the Laplace Transform, on the $ L^2$ error estimate is presented for the linear case, which shows how the error of the domain decomposition method depends on the smaller relaxation time, and the boundary and interface layer effects. The given convergence rate is optimal. We present a numerical implementation of this domain decomposition method, and give some numerical results in order to study the performance of this method.

We study the detailed process of bifurcation in the flow’s topological structure for a two-dimensional (2-D) incompressible flow subject to no-slip boundary conditions and its connection with boundary-layer separation. The boundary-layer separation theory of M. Ghil, T. Ma and S. Wang, based on the structural-bifurcation concept, is translated into vorticity form. The vorticity formulation of the theory shows that structural bifurcation occurs whenever a degenerate singular point for the vorticity appears on the boundary; this singular point is characterized by nonzero tangential second-order derivative and nonzero time derivative of the vorticity. Furthermore, we prove the presence of an adverse pressure gradient at the critical point, due to reversal in the direction of the pressure force with respect to the basic shear flow at this point. A numerical example of 2-D driven-cavity flow, governed by the Navier Stokes equations, is presented; boundary-layer separation occurs, the bifurcation criterion is satisfied, and an adverse pressure gradient is shown to be present.

In this paper, we consider the Boltzmann equation with soft potentials and prove the stability of a class of non-trivial profiles defined as some given local Maxwellians. The method consists of the analytic techniques for viscous conservation laws, properties of Burnett functions and energy method through the micro-macro decomposition of the Boltzmann equation. In particular, one of the key observations is a detailed analysis of the Burnett functions so that the energy estimates can be obtained in a clear way. As an application of the main results in this paper, we prove the large time nonlinear asymptotic stability of rarefaction waves to the Boltzmann equation with soft potentials.