On some mathematical models of filtration theory

The article is devoted to the study of some mathematical models arising in filtration theory. We examine an inverse problem of determining an unknown right-hand side and coefficients in a pseudoparabolic equation of the third order. Equations of this type and more general Sobolev-type equations arise in filtration theory, heat and mass transfer, plasma physics, and in many other fields. We reduce the problem to an operator equation whose solvability is established with the help of a priori estimates and the fixed point theorem. Together with the natural smoothness conditions for the data, we require also some well-posedness condition to be fulfilled which is actually reduced to the condition of nondegeneracy of some matrix constructed with the use of the data of the problem. Theorems on existence and uniqueness of solutions to this problem are stated and proven. Stability estimates are exposed. In the linear case the result is global in time, while in the nonlinear case it is local. The main function spaces used are the Sobolev spaces.