On a Cahn-Hilliard-Brinkman model for tumour growth and its singular limits

Abstract: In this work, we study a model consisting of a Cahn-Hilliard-type equation for the concentration of tumour cells coupled to a reaction-diffusion type equation for the nutrient density and a Brinkman-type equation for the velocity. We equip the system with Neumann boundary for the tumour cell variable and the chemical potential, Robin-type boundary conditions for the nutrient and a "no-friction" boundary condition for the velocity, which allows us to consider solution dependent source terms. Well-posedness of the model as well as existence of strong solutions will be established for a broad class of potentials. We will show that in the singular limit of vanishing viscosity we recover a Darcy-type system related to Cahn-Hilliard-Darcy type models for tumour growth which have been studied earlier. An asymptotic limit will show that the results are also valid in the case of Dirichlet boundary conditions for the nutrient.