Quasilinear parabolic and elliptic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions

This paper is concerned with a class of quasilinear parabolic and elliptic equations in a bounded domain with both Dirichlet and nonlinear Neumann boundary conditions. The equation under consideration may be degenerate or singular depending on the property of the diffusion coefficient. The consideration of the class of equations is motivated by some heat-transfer problems where the heat capacity and thermal conductivity are both temperature dependent. The aim of the paper is to show the existence and uniqueness of a global time-dependent solution of the parabolic problem, existence of maximal and minimal steady-state solutions of the elliptic problem, including conditions for the uniqueness of a solution, and the asymptotic behavior of the time-dependent solution in relation to the steady-state solutions. Applications are given to some heat-transfer problems and an extended logistic reaction-diffusion equation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.