On the Non-isothermal Nernst-Planck-Navier-Stokes System
Electrodiffusion has been extensively studied in the isothermal setting, whereas the mathematical theory of thermally coupled electrodiffusion remains comparatively underdeveloped. We investigate a non-isothermal electrodiffusion model describing the evolution of multiple ionic species with different diffusivities and valences in a two-dimensional incompressible viscous fluid. The coupling to a spatially and temporally varying temperature gives rise to a nonlinear and nonlocal system with logarithmic nonlinearities in the ionic fluxes. We establish local well-posedness for strictly positive initial concentrations and prove global well-posedness when the initial temperature is close to a homogeneous state by developing a new entropy structure tailored to thermodiffusive effects. No smallness assumption is imposed on the initial ionic concentrations or fluid velocity. To overcome the singularity of the logarithmic terms, we develop a novel cutoff-mollification regularization, derive uniform logarithmic estimates, and prove persistence of strict positivity of the ionic concentrations. This positivity removes the singular behavior of the logarithmic nonlinearities and is essential for the uniqueness argument. These results provide a rigorous mathematical framework for the analysis of non-isothermal electrohydrodynamics systems.