Some extremum and unilateral boundary value problems in viscous hydrodynamics.- On axisymmetric motion of the fluid with a free surface.- On the occurrence of singularities in axisymmetrical problems of hele-shaw type.- New asymptotic method for solving of mixed boundary value problems.- Some results on the thermistor problem.- New applications of energy methods to parabolic and elliptic free boundary problems.- A localized finite element method for nonlinear water wave problems.- Approximate method of investigation of normal oscillations of viscous incompressible liquid in container.- The classical Stefan problem as the limit case of the Stefan problem with a kinetic condition at the free boundary.- A mathematical model of oscillations energy dissipation of viscous liquid in a tank.- Existence of the classical solution of a two-phase multidimensional Stefan problem on any finite time interval.- Asymptotic theory of propagation of nonstationary surface and internal waves over uneven bottom.- Multiparametric problems of two-dimensional free boundary seepage.- Nonisothermal two-phase filtration in porous media.- Explicit solution of time-dependent free boundary problems.- Nonequilibrium phase transitions in frozen grounds.- System of variational inequalities arising in nonlinear diffusion with phase change.- Contact viscoelastoplastic problem for a beam.- Application of a finite-element method to two-dimensional contact problems.- Computations of a gas bubble motion in liquid.- Waves on the liquid-gas free surface in the presence of the acoustic field in gas.- Smooth bore in a two-layer fluid.- Numerical calculation of movable free and contact boundaries in problems of dynamic deformation of viscoelastic bodies.- On the canonical variables for two-dimensional vortex hydrodynamics of incompressible fluid.- About the method with regularization for solving the contact problem in elasticity.- Space evolution of tornado-like vortex core.- Optimal shape design for parabolic system and two-phase Stefan problem.- Incompressible fluid flows with free boundary and the methods for their research.- On the Stefan problems for the system of equations arising in the modelling of liquid-phase epitaxy processes.- Stefan problem with surface tension as a limit of the phase field model.- The modelization of transformation phase via the resolution of an inclusion problem with moving boundary.- To the problem of constructing weak solutions in dynamic elastoplasticity.- The justification of the conjugate conditions for the Euler's and Darcy's equations.- On an evolution problem of thermo-capillary convection.- Front tracking methods for one-dimensional moving boundary problems.- On Cauchy problem for long wave equations.- On fixed point (trial) methods for free boundary problems.- Nonlinear theory of dynamics of a viscous fluid with a free boundary in the process of a solid body wetting.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Workshop Energy Methods for Free Boundary Problems in Continuum Mechanics, held in Oviedo, Spain, from March 21 to March 23, 1994. It is well known that the conservation laws and the constitutive equations of Continuum Mechanics lead to complicated coupled systems of partial differential equations to which, as a rule, one fails to apply the techniques usually employed in the studies of scalar uncoupled equations such as, for instance, the maximum principle. The study of the qualitative behaviour of solutions of the systems re quires different techniques, among others, the so called, Energy Methods where the properties of some integral of a nonnegative function of one or several unknowns allow one to arrive at important conclusions on the envolved unknowns. This vol ume presents the state of the art in such a technique. A special attention is paid to the class of Free Boundary Problems. The organizers are pleased to thank the European Science Foundation (Pro gram on Mathematical treatment of free boundary problems), the DGICYT (Spain), the FICYT (Principado de Asturias, Spain) and the Universities of Oviedo and Complutense de Madrid for their generous financial support. Finally, we wish to thank Kluwer Academic Publishers for the facilities received for the publication of these Proceedings."

For the past several decades, the study of free boundary problems has been a very active subject of research occurring in a variety of applied sciences. What these problems have in common is their formulation in terms of suitably posed initial and boundary value problems for nonlinear partial differential equations. Such problems arise, for example, in the mathematical treatment of the processes of heat conduction, filtration through porous media, flows of non-Newtonian fluids, boundary layers, chemical reactions, semiconductors, and so on. The growing interest in these problems is reflected by the series of meetings held under the title "Free Boundary Problems: Theory and Applications" (Ox ford 1974, Pavia 1979, Durham 1978, Montecatini 1981, Maubuisson 1984, Irsee 1987, Montreal 1990, Toledo 1993, Zakopane 1995, Crete 1997, Chiba 1999). From the proceedings of these meetings, we can learn about the different kinds of mathematical areas that fall within the scope of free boundary problems. It is worth mentioning that the European Science Foundation supported a vast research project on free boundary problems from 1993 until 1999. The recent creation of the specialized journal Interfaces and Free Boundaries: Modeling, Analysis and Computation gives us an idea of the vitality of the subject and its present state of development. This book is a result of collaboration among the authors over the last 15 years."

Progress in different fields of mechanics, such as filtra- tion theory, elastic-plastic problems, crystallization pro- cesses, internal and surface waves, etc., is governed to a great extent by the advances in the study of free boundary problems for nonlinear partial differential equations. Free boundary problems form a scientific area which attracts attention of many specialists in mathematics and mechanics. Increasing interest in the field has given rise to the "International Conferences on Free Boundary Problems and Their Applications" which have convened, since the 1980s, in such countries as England, the United states, Italy, France and Germany. This book comprises the papers presented at the Interna- tional Conference "Free Boundary Problems in Continuum Mechanics", organized by the Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, Russian Academy of Sciences, July 15-19, 1991, Novosibirsk, Russia. The scientific committee consisted of: Co-chairmen: K.-H. Hoffmann, L.V. Ovsiannikov S. Antontsev (Russia) J. Ockendon (UK) M. Fremond (France) L. Ovsiannikov (Russia) A. Friedman (USA) S. Pokhozhaev (Russia) K.-H. Hoffmann (Germany) M. Primicerio (Italy) A. Khludnev (Russia) V. Pukhnachov (Russia) V. Monakhov (Russia) Yu. Shokin (Russia) V. Teshukov (Russia) Our thanks are due to the members of the Scientific Com- mittee, all authors, and participants for contributing to the success of the Conference. We would like to express special appreciation to N. Makarenko, J. Mal'tseva and T. Savelieva, Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, for their help in preparing this book for publication.

For the past several decades, the study of free boundary problems has been a very active subject of research occurring in a variety of applied sciences. What these problems have in common is their formulation in terms of suitably posed initial and boundary value problems for nonlinear partial differential equations. Such problems arise, for example, in the mathematical treatment of the processes of heat conduction, filtration through porous media, flows of non-Newtonian fluids, boundary layers, chemical reactions, semiconductors, and so on. The growing interest in these problems is reflected by the series of meetings held under the title "Free Boundary Problems: Theory and Applications" (Ox ford 1974, Pavia 1979, Durham 1978, Montecatini 1981, Maubuisson 1984, Irsee 1987, Montreal 1990, Toledo 1993, Zakopane 1995, Crete 1997, Chiba 1999). From the proceedings of these meetings, we can learn about the different kinds of mathematical areas that fall within the scope of free boundary problems. It is worth mentioning that the European Science Foundation supported a vast research project on free boundary problems from 1993 until 1999. The recent creation of the specialized journal Interfaces and Free Boundaries: Modeling, Analysis and Computation gives us an idea of the vitality of the subject and its present state of development. This book is a result of collaboration among the authors over the last 15 years.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Workshop Energy Methods for Free Boundary Problems in Continuum Mechanics, held in Oviedo, Spain, from March 21 to March 23, 1994. It is well known that the conservation laws and the constitutive equations of Continuum Mechanics lead to complicated coupled systems of partial differential equations to which, as a rule, one fails to apply the techniques usually employed in the studies of scalar uncoupled equations such as, for instance, the maximum principle. The study of the qualitative behaviour of solutions of the systems re quires different techniques, among others, the so called, Energy Methods where the properties of some integral of a nonnegative function of one or several unknowns allow one to arrive at important conclusions on the envolved unknowns. This vol ume presents the state of the art in such a technique. A special attention is paid to the class of Free Boundary Problems. The organizers are pleased to thank the European Science Foundation (Pro gram on Mathematical treatment of free boundary problems), the DGICYT (Spain), the FICYT (Principado de Asturias, Spain) and the Universities of Oviedo and Complutense de Madrid for their generous financial support. Finally, we wish to thank Kluwer Academic Publishers for the facilities received for the publication of these Proceedings.