Degenerate two-phase incompressible flow II: regularity, stability and stabilization

In this paper we analyze a coupled system of highly degenerate elliptic-parabolic partial differential equations for two-phase incompressible flow in porous media. This system involves a saturation and a global pressure (or a total flow velocity). First, we show that the saturation is Holder continuous both in space and time and the total velocity is Holder continuous in space (uniformly in time). Applying this regularity result, we then establish the stability of the saturation and pressure with respect to initial and boundary data, from which uniqueness of the solution to the system follows. Finally, we establish a stabilization result on the asymptotic behavior of the saturation and pressure: we prove that the solution to the present system converges (in appropriate norms) to the solution of a stationary system as time goes to infinity. An example is given to show typical regularity of the saturation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.