Global Uniqueness of Steady Transonic Shocks in Two-Dimensional Compressible Euler Flows

TL;DR

This paper proves the uniqueness of certain steady transonic shock solutions in two-dimensional compressible Euler flows, under weaker conditions than traditionally assumed, using elliptic-hyperbolic free boundary problem analysis.

Contribution

It establishes the uniqueness of key transonic shock solutions without assuming piecewise constant flows, broadening the understanding of flow pattern determinacy.

Findings

Uniqueness of normal transonic shocks in straight ducts.

Uniqueness of oblique transonic shocks attached to wedges.

Uniqueness of flat Mach configurations with multiple shocks.

Abstract

We prove that for the two-dimensional steady complete compressible Euler system, with given uniform upcoming supersonic flows, the following three fundamental flow patterns (special solutions) in gas dynamics involving transonic shocks are all unique in the class of piecewise $C^1$ smooth functions, under appropriate conditions on the downstream subsonic flows: $(\rmnum{1})$ the normal transonic shocks in a straight duct with finite or infinite length, after fixing a point the shock-front passing through; $(\rmnum{2})$ the oblique transonic shocks attached to an infinite wedge; $(\rmnum{3})$ a flat Mach configuration containing one supersonic shock, two transonic shocks, and a contact discontinuity, after fixing the point the four discontinuities intersect. These special solutions are constructed traditionally under the assumption that they are piecewise constant, and they have played important roles in the studies of mathematical gas dynamics. Our results show that the assumption of piecewise constant can be replaced by some more weaker assumptions on the downstream subsonic flows, which are sufficient to uniquely determine these special solutions. Mathematically, these are uniqueness results on solutions of free boundary problems of a quasi-linear system of elliptic-hyperbolic composite-mixed type in bounded or unbounded planar domains, without any assumptions on smallness. The proof relies on an elliptic system of pressure $p$ and the tangent of the flow angle $w=v/u$ obtained by decomposition of the Euler system in Lagrangian coordinates, and a newly developed method for the $L^{\infty}$ estimate that is independent of the free boundaries, by combining the maximum principles of elliptic equations, and careful analysis of shock polar applied on the (maybe curved) shock-fronts.