1,322 research outputs found
Convergence of the Allen-Cahn equation with Neumann boundary conditions
We study a singular limit problem of the Allen-Cahn equation with Neumann
boundary conditions and general initial data of uniformly bounded energy. We
prove that the time-parametrized family of limit energy measures is Brakke's
mean curvature flow with a generalized right angle condition on the boundary.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figur
Phase-field boundary conditions for the voxel finite cell method: surface-free stress analysis of CT-based bone structures
The voxel finite cell method employs unfitted finite element meshes and voxel quadrature rules to seamlessly
transfer CT data into patient-specific bone discretizations. The method, however, still requires the explicit
parametrization of boundary surfaces to impose traction and displacement boundary conditions, which
constitutes a potential roadblock to automation. We explore a phase-field based formulation for imposing
traction and displacement constraints in a diffuse sense. Its essential component is a diffuse geometry model
generated from metastable phase-field solutions of the Allen-Cahn problem that assumes the imaging data as
initial condition. Phase-field approximations of the boundary and its gradient are then employed to transfer
all boundary terms in the variational formulation into volumetric terms. We show that in the context of the
voxel finite cell method, diffuse boundary conditions achieve the same accuracy as boundary conditions
defined over explicit 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 femur and a vertebral body
An efficient implementation of an implicit FEM scheme for fractional-in-space reaction-diffusion equations
Fractional differential equations are becoming increasingly used as a modelling tool for processes with anomalous diffusion or spatial heterogeneity. However, the presence of a fractional differential operator causes memory (time fractional) or nonlocality (space fractional) issues, which impose a number of computational constraints. In this paper we develop efficient, scalable techniques for solving fractional-in-space reaction diffusion equations using the finite element method on both structured and unstructured grids, and robust techniques for computing the fractional power of a matrix times a vector. Our approach is show-cased by solving the fractional Fisher and fractional Allen-Cahn reaction-diffusion equations in two and three spatial dimensions, and analysing the speed of the travelling wave and size of the interface in terms of the fractional power of the underlying Laplacian operator
Fourier spectral methods for fractional-in-space reaction-diffusion equations
Fractional differential equations are becoming increasingly used as a powerful modelling approach for understanding the many aspects of nonlocality and spatial heterogeneity. However, the numerical approximation of these models is computationally demanding and imposes a number of computational constraints. In this paper, we introduce Fourier spectral methods as an attractive and easy-to-code alternative for the integration of fractional-in-space reactiondiffusion equations. The main advantages of the proposed schemes is that they yield a fully diagonal representation of the fractional operator, with increased accuracy and efficiency when compared to low-order counterparts, and a completely straightforward extension to two and three spatial dimensions. Our approach is show-cased by solving several problems of practical interest, including the fractional Allen–Cahn, FitzHugh–Nagumo and Gray–Scott models,together with an analysis of the properties of these systems in terms of the fractional power of the underlying Laplacian operator
Extended Smoothed Boundary Method for Solving Partial Differential Equations with General Boundary Conditions on Complex Boundaries
In this article, we describe an approach for solving partial differential
equations with general boundary conditions imposed on arbitrarily shaped
boundaries. A continuous function, the domain parameter, is used to modify the
original differential equations such that the equations are solved in the
region where a domain parameter takes a specified value while boundary
conditions are imposed on the region where the value of the domain parameter
varies smoothly across a short distance. The mathematical derivations are
straightforward and generically applicable to a wide variety of partial
differential equations. To demonstrate the general applicability of the
approach, we provide four examples herein: (1) the diffusion equation with both
Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions; (2) the diffusion equation with both
surface diffusion and reaction; (3) the mechanical equilibrium equation; and
(4) the equation for phase transformation with the presence of additional
boundaries. The solutions for several of these cases are validated against
corresponding analytical and semi-analytical solutions. The potential of the
approach is demonstrated with five applications: surface-reaction-diffusion
kinetics with a complex geometry, Kirkendall-effect-induced deformation,
thermal stress in a complex geometry, phase transformations affected by
substrate surfaces, and a self-propelled droplet.Comment: This document is the revised version of arXiv:0912.1288v
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