Wave interactions and stability of the Riemann solutions for a scalar conservation law with a discontinuous flux function

Abstract

This paper is devoted to studying the interactions of elementary waves for a model of a scalar conservation law with a flux function involving discontinuous coefficients. In order to cover all the situations completely, we take the initial data as three piecewise constant states and the middle region is regarded as the perturbed region with small distance. It is proved that the Riemann solutions are stable under the local small perturbations of the Riemann initial data by letting the perturbed parameter tend to zero. The proof is based on the detailed analysis of the interactions of stationary wave discontinuities with shock waves and rarefaction waves. Moreover, the global structures and large time asymptotic behaviors of the solutions are constructed and analyzed case by case.