The Cauchy problem for the pressureless Euler/isentropic Navier–Stokes equations

Abstract

We present a new hydrodynamic model consisting of the pressureless Euler equations and the isentropic compressible Navier–Stokes equations where the coupling of two systems is through the drag force. This coupled system can be derived, in the hydrodynamic limit, from the particle-fluid equations that are frequently used to study the medical sprays, aerosols and sedimentation problems. For the proposed system, we first construct the local-in-time classical solutions in an appropriate L2 Sobolev space. We also establish the a priori large-time behavior estimate by constructing a Lyapunov functional measuring the fluctuation of momentum and mass from the averaged quantities, and using this together with the bootstrapping argument, we obtain the global classical solution. The large-time behavior estimate asserts that the velocity functions of the pressureless Euler and the compressible Navier–Stokes equations are aligned exponentially fast as time tends to infinity.