On the Hyperbolic System of a Mixture of Eulerian Fluids: A Comparison Between Single- and Multi-Temperature Models

The first rational model of homogeneous mixtures of fluids was proposed by Truesdell in the context of rational thermodynamics. Afterwards, two different theories were developed: one with a single-temperature (ST) field of the mixture and the other one with several temperatures. The two systems are from the mathematical point of view completely different and the relationship between their solutions was not clarified. In this paper, the hyperbolic multi-temperature (MT) system of a mixture of Eulerian fluids will be explained and it will be shown that the corresponding single-temperature differential system is a principal subsystem of the MT one. As a consequence, the subcharacteristic conditions for characteristic speeds hold and this gives an upper-bound esteem for pulse speeds in an ST model. Global behaviour of smooth solutions for large time for both systems will also be discussed through the application of the Shizuta– Kawashima condition. Finally, as an application, the particular case of a binary mixture is considered.