Stability of supersonic contact discontinuity for two-dimensional steady compressible Euler flows in a finite nozzle

In this paper, we study the stability of supersonic contact discontinuity for the two-dimensional steady compressible Euler flows in a finitely long nozzle of varying cross-sections. We formulate the problem as an initial-boundary value problem with the contact discontinuity as a free boundary. To deal with the free boundary value problem, we employ the Lagrangian transformation to straighten the contact discontinuity and then the free boundary value problem becomes a fixed boundary value problem. We develop an iteration scheme and establish some novel estimates of solutions for the first order of hyperbolic equations on a cornered domain. Finally, by using the inverse Lagrangian transformation and under the assumption that the incoming flows and the nozzle walls are smooth perturbations of the background state, we prove that the original free boundary problem admits a unique weak solution which is a small perturbation of the background state and the solution consists of two smooth supersonic flows separated by a smooth contact discontinuity. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.