On some smooth symmetric transonic flows with nonzero angular velocity and vorticity

Abstract

This paper concerns the structural stability of smooth cylindrically symmetric transonic flows in a concentric cylinder. Both cylindrical and axi-symmetric perturbations are considered. The governing system here is of mixed elliptic–hyperbolic and changes type and the suitable formulation of boundary conditions at the boundaries is of great importance. First, we establish the existence and uniqueness of smooth cylindrical transonic spiral solutions with nonzero angular velocity and vorticity which are close to the background transonic flow with small perturbations of the Bernoulli’s function and the entropy at the outer cylinder and the flow angles at both the inner and outer cylinders independent of the symmetric axis, and it is shown that in this case, the sonic points of the flow are nonexceptional and noncharacteristically degenerate, and form a cylindrical surface. Second, we also prove the existence and uniqueness of axi-symmetric smooth transonic rotational flows which are adjacent to the background transonic flow, whose sonic points form an axi-symmetric surface. The key elements in our analysis are to utilize the deformation-curl decomposition for the steady Euler system to deal with the hyperbolicity in subsonic regions and to find an appropriate multiplier for the linearized second-order mixed type equations which are crucial to identify the suitable boundary conditions and to yield the important basic energy estimates.