Global existence of weak solutions and weak–strong uniqueness for nonisothermal Maxwell–Stefan systems *

Abstract

The dynamics of multicomponent gas mixtures with vanishing barycentric velocity is described by Maxwell–Stefan equations with mass diffusion and heat conduction. The equations consist of the mass and energy balances, coupled to an algebraic system that relates the partial velocities and driving forces. The global existence of weak solutions to this system in a bounded domain with no-flux boundary conditions is proved by using the boundedness-by-entropy method. A priori estimates are obtained from the entropy inequality which originates from the consistent thermodynamic modelling. Furthermore, a conditional weak–strong uniqueness property is shown by using the relative entropy method.