Global existence of weak solution for nonisothermal multicomponent flow in porous textile media

In this paper, we study nonisothermal two-component (air and vapor) fluid flow through a porous textile medium with phase change, which is described by a degenerate and strongly coupled parabolic system. We prove global existence of weak solutions to the heat-air-vapor system and the positivity/nonnegativity of solutions. The analysis presented in this paper can be applied directly to multicomponent heat and mass transport models in many other areas, such as petroleum engineering, building materials, and fuel cells. © 2010 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.