Diffuse-interface approximations of osmosis free boundary problems

Free boundary problems based on mass conservation and surface tension with application in osmotic swelling are the topic of this contribution. We introduce new phase-field approximations of such models, in order to numerically investigate properties of the solutions. Formal justification of the proposed approximations is provided by matched asymptotic expansions supported by numerical tests reproducing the convergence for shrinking interface thickness

The diffuse Nitsche method: Dirichlet constraints on phase-field boundaries

We explore diffuse formulations of Nitsche's method for consistently imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions on phase-field approximations of sharp domains. Leveraging the properties of the phase-field gradient, we derive the variational formulation of the diffuse Nitsche method by transferring all integrals associated with the Dirichlet boundary from a geometrically sharp surface format in the standard Nitsche method to a geometrically diffuse volumetric format. We also derive conditions for the stability of the discrete system and formulate a diffuse local eigenvalue problem, from which the stabilization parameter can be estimated automatically in each element. We advertise metastable phase-field solutions of the Allen-Cahn problem for transferring complex imaging data into diffuse geometric models. In particular, we discuss the use of mixed meshes, that is, an adaptively refined mesh for the phase-field in the diffuse boundary region and a uniform mesh for the representation of the physics-based solution fields. We illustrate accuracy and convergence properties of the diffuse Nitsche method and demonstrate its advantages over diffuse penalty-type methods. In the context of imaging based analysis, we show that the diffuse Nitsche method achieves the same accuracy as the standard Nitsche method with sharp surfaces, if the inherent length scales, i.e., the interface width of the phase-field, the voxel spacing and the mesh size, are properly related. We demonstrate the flexibility of the new method by analyzing stresses in a human vertebral body

Phase field modelling of surfactants in multi-phase flow

A diffuse interface model for surfactants in multi-phase flow with three or more fluids is derived. A system of Cahn-Hilliard equations is coupled with a Navier-Stokes system and an advection-diffusion equation for the surfactant ensuring thermodynamic consistency. By an asymptotic analysis the model can be related to a moving boundary problem in the sharp interface limit, which is derived from first principles. Results from numerical simulations support the theoretical findings. The main novelties are centred around the conditions in the triple junctions where three fluids meet. Specifically the case of local chemical equilibrium with respect to the surfactant is considered, which allows for interfacial surfactant flow through the triple junctions

Analysis of the diffuse domain approach for a bulk-surface coupled PDE system

We analyse a diffuse interface type approximation, known as the diffuse domain approach, of a linear coupled bulk-surface elliptic \textcolor{blue}{PDE} system. The well-posedness of the diffuse domain approximation is shown using weighted Sobolev spaces and we prove that the solution to the diffuse domain approximation converges weakly to the solution of the coupled bulk-surface elliptic system as the approximation parameter tends to zero. Moreover, we can show strong convergence for the bulk quantity, while for the surface quantity, we can show norm convergence and strong convergence in a weighted Sobolev space. %Our analysis also covers a second order surface elliptic partial differential equation and a bulk elliptic partial differential equation with Dirichlet, Neumann and Robin boundary condition