We present a fully adaptive multiresolution scheme for spatially one-dimensional quasilinear strongly degenerate parabolic equations with zero-flux and periodic boundary conditions. The numerical scheme is based on a finite volume discretization using the Engquist-Osher numerical flux and explicit time stepping. An adaptive multiresolution scheme based on cell averages is then used to speed up the CPU time and the memory requirements of the underlying finite volume scheme, whose first-order version is known to converge to an entropy solution of the problem. A particular feature of the method is the storage of the multiresolution representation of the solution in a graded tree, whoseleaves are the non-uniform finite volumes on which the numerical divergence is eventually evaluated. Moreover using the L 1 contraction of the discrete time evolution operator we derive the optimal choice of the threshold in the adaptive multiresolution method. Numerical examples illustrate thecomputational efficiency together with the convergence properties.

We consider the Euler equations for compressible fluidsin a nozzle whose cross-section is variable and may contain discontinuities.We view these equations as a hyperbolic system in nonconservative formand investigate weak solutions in the sense of Dal Maso, LeFloch and Murat [J. Math. Pures Appl.74 (1995) 483–548].Observing that the entropy equality has a fully conservative form,we derive a minimum entropy principle satisfied by entropy solutions.We then establish the stability of a class of numerical approximations for this system.

In this paper we are interested in bilateral obstacle problems for quasilinear scalar conservation laws associated with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Firstly, we provide a suitable entropy formulation which ensures uniqueness. Then, we justify the existence of a solution through the method of penalization and by referring to the notion of entropy process solution due to specific properties of bounded sequences in L ∞. Lastly, we study the behaviour of this solution and its stability properties with respect to the associated obstacle functions.