Viscous limits for piecewise smooth solutions of the p-system

We study the zero-dissipation problem for a one-dimensional model system for the isentropic flow of a compressible viscous gas, the so-called p-system with viscosity. When the solution of the inviscid problem is piecewise smooth and having finitely many noninteracting shocks satisfying the entropy condition, there exists unique solution to the viscous problem which converges to the given inviscid solution away from shock discontinuities at a rate of order ε as the viscosity coefficient ε goes to zero. The proof is given by a matched asymptotic analysis and an elementary energy method. And we do not need the smallness condition on the shock strength.  2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved