Thermal Non-Equilibrium Flows in Three Space Dimensions

Abstract

We study the equations describing the motion of a thermal non-equilibrium gas in three space dimensions. It is a hyperbolic system of six equations with a relaxation term. The dissipation mechanism induced by the relaxation is weak in the sense that the Shizuta-Kawashima criterion is violated. This implies that a perturbation of a constant equilibrium state consists of two parts: one decays in time while the other stays. In fact, the entropy wave grows weakly along the particle path as the process is irreversible. We study thermal properties related to the well-posedness of the nonlinear system. We also obtain a detailed pointwise estimate on the Green’s function for the Cauchy problem when the system is linearized around an equilibrium constant state. The Green’s function provides a complete picture of the wave pattern, with an exact and explicit leading term. Comparing with existing results for one dimensional flows, our results reveal a new feature of three dimensional flows: not only does the entropy wave not decay, but the velocity also contains a non-decaying part, strongly coupled with its decaying one. The new feature is supported by the second order approximation via the Chapman-Enskog expansions, which are the Navier-Stokes equations with vanished shear viscosity and heat conductivity.