A well-known diffuse interface model consists of the Navier-Stokes equations nonlinearly coupled with a convective Cahn-Hilliard type equation. This system describes the evolution of an incompressible isothermal mixture of binary fluids and it has been investigated by many authors. Here we consider a variant of this model where the standard Cahn-Hilliard equation is replaced by its nonlocal version. More precisely, the gradient term in the free energy functional is replaced by a spatial convolution operator acting on the order parameter ϕ, while the potential F may have any polynomial growth. Therefore the coupling with the Navier-Stokes equations is difficult to handle even in two spatial dimensions because of the lack of regularity of ϕ. We establish the global existence of a weak solution. In the two-dimensional case we also prove that such a solution satisfies the energy identity and a dissipative estimate, provided that F fulfills a suitable coercivity condition.

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0956792514000436How to cite this article: SERGIO FRIGERI, MAURIZIO GRASSELLI and ELISABETTA ROCCA (2015). On a diffuse interface model of tumour growth. We consider a diffuse interface model of tumour growth proposed by A. Hawkins-Daruud et al. ((2013) J. Math. Biol. 67 1457-1485). This model consists of the Cahn-Hilliard equation for the tumour cell fraction ϕ nonlinearly coupled with a reaction-diffusion equation for ψ, which represents the nutrient-rich extracellular water volume fraction. The coupling is expressed through a suitable proliferation function p(ϕ) multiplied by the differences of the chemical potentials for ϕ and ψ. The system is equipped with no-flux boundary conditions which give the conservation of the total mass, that is, the spatial average of ϕ + ψ. Here, we prove the existence of a weak solution to the associated Cauchy problem, provided that the potential F and p satisfy sufficiently general conditions. Then we show that the weak solution is unique and continuously depends on the initial data, provided that p satisfies slightly stronger growth restrictions. Also, we demonstrate the existence of a strong solution and that any weak solution regularizes in finite time. Finally, we prove the existence of the global attractor in a phase space characterized by an a priori bounded energy.

We consider a diffuse interface model for incompressible isothermal mixtures of two immiscible fluids with matched constant densities. This model consists of the Navier-Stokes system coupled with a convective nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation with non-constant mobility. We first prove the existence of a global weak solution in the case of non-degenerate mobilities and regular potentials of polynomial growth. Then we extend the result to degenerate mobilities and singular (e.g. logarithmic) potentials. In the latter case we also establish the existence of the global attractor in dimension two. Using a similar technique, we show that there is a global attractor for the convective nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation with degenerate mobility and singular potential in dimension three.

We consider a diffuse interface model which describes the motion of an incompressible isothermal mixture of two immiscible fluids. This model consists of the Navier-Stokes equations coupled with a convective nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation.Several results were already proven by two of the present authors. However, in the two-dimensional case, the uniqueness of weak solutions was still open. Here we establish such a result even in the case of degenerate mobility and singular potential.Moreover, we show the weak-strong uniqueness in the case of viscosity depending on the order parameter, provided that either the mobility is constant and the potential is regular or the mobility is degenerate and the potential is singular. In the case of constant viscosity, on account of the uniqueness results we can deduce the connectedness of the global attractor whose existence was obtained in a previous paper. The uniqueness technique can be adapted to show the validity of a smoothing property for the difference of two trajectories which is crucial to establish the existence of an exponential attractor. The latter is established even in the case of variable viscosity, constant mobility and regular potential.

Here we consider a Cahn-Hilliard-Navier-Stokes system characterized by a nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation with a singular (e.g., logarithmic) potential. This system originates from a diffuse interface model for incompressible isothermal mixtures of two immiscible fluids. We have already analyzed the case of smooth potentials with arbitrary polynomial growth. Here, taking advantage of the previous results, we study this more challenging (and physically relevant) case. We first establish the existence of a global weak solution with no-slip and no-flux boundary conditions. Then we prove the existence of the global attractor for the 2D generalized semiflow (in the sense of J.M. Ball). We recall that uniqueness is still an open issue even in 2D. We also obtain, as byproduct, the existence of a connected global attractor for the (convective) nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation. Finally, in the 3D case, we establish the existence of a trajectory attractor (in the sense of V.V. Chepyzhov and M.I. Vishik).Keywords: Navier-Stokes equations, nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equations, singular 1 potentials, incompressible binary fluids, global attractors, trajectory attractors.