Sonic-supersonic jet flows from a straight two-dimensional nozzle with van der Waals equation of state

This article concerns sonic-supersonic jet flows issuing from a two-dimensional straight nozzle described by the steady compressible Euler system under the van der Waals equation of state.

The flow state is prescribed at the nozzle exit, while the surrounding medium is assumed to be either a vacuum or a static atmosphere with lower pressure.

When the flow reaches the sonic state at the nozzle exit, the governing equations become degenerate hyperbolic and the resulting jet flow problem can be formulated as a degenerate free boundary problem.

The analysis is further complicated by singular behavior near the endpoints of the nozzle exit.

By employing characteristic decompositions and suitable a priori estimates, we establish the global existence of locally Lipschitz continuous sonic-supersonic jet flows expanding into a vacuum.

Moreover, in the presence of a static atmosphere with pressure lower than that at the nozzle exit, we prove the local existence of sonic-supersonic jet flows near the nozzle exit.