Exact solutions of a two-fluid model of two-phase compressible flows with gravity

Abstract

We aim at determining and computing a class of exact solutions of a two-fluid model of two-phase flows with/without gravity. The model is described by a non-hyperbolic system of balance laws whose characteristic fields may not be given explicitly, making it perhaps impossible to solve the Riemann problem. First, we investigate Riemann invariants in the linearly degenerate characteristic fields and obtain a surprising result on the corresponding contact waves of the model without gravity. Second, even when gravity is allowed, we show that smooth stationary solutions can be governed by a system of differential equations in divergence form, which determines jump relations for any stationary discontinuity wave. Using these relations, we establish a nonlinear equation for the pressure and propose a method to compute the pressure and then the equilibria resulted by a stationary wave.