Models and numerical methods for electrolyte flows

The most common mathematical models for electrolyte flows are based on the dilute solution assumption, leading to a coupled system of the Nernst--Planck--Poisson drift-diffusion equations for ion transport and the Stokes resp. Navier--Stokes equations for fluid flow. This contribution discusses historical and recent model developments beyond the dilute solution assumption and focuses on the effects of finite ion sizes and solvation. A novel numerical solution approach is presented and verified here which aims at preserving on the discrete level consistency with basic thermodynamic principles and structural properties like independence of flow velocities from gradient contributions to external forces

On a drift-diffusion system for semiconductor devices

In this note we study a fractional Poisson-Nernst-Planck equation modeling a semiconductor device. We prove several decay estimates for the Lebesgue and Sobolev norms in one, two and three dimensions. We also provide the first term of the asymptotic expansion as $t\rightarrow\infty$.Comment: to appear in Annales Henri Poincar\'

Global solutions to the Nernst-Planck-Euler system on bounded domain

We show that the Nernst-Planck-Euler system, which models ionic electrodiffusion in fluids, has global strong solutions for arbitrarily large data in the two dimensional bounded domains. The assumption on species is either there are two species or the diffusivities and the absolute values of ionic valences are the same if the species are arbitrarily many. In particular, the boundary conditions for the ions are allowed to be inhomogeneous. The proof is based on the energy estimates, integration along the characteristic line and the regularity theory of elliptic and parabolic equations

Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Mass Transfer through Semi-Permeable Membranes

A discontinuous Galerkin (dG) method for the numerical solution of initial/boundary value multi-compartment partial differential equation (PDE) models, interconnected with interface conditions, is presented and analysed. The study of interface problems is motivated by models of mass transfer of solutes through semi-permeable membranes. More specifically, a model problem consisting of a system of semilinear parabolic advection-diffusion-reaction partial differential equations in each compartment, equipped with respective initial and boundary conditions, is considered. Nonlinear interface conditions modelling selective permeability, congestion and partial reflection are applied to the compartment interfaces. An interior penalty dG method is presented for this problem and it is analysed in the space-discrete setting. The a priori analysis shows that the method yields optimal a priori bounds, provided the exact solution is sufficiently smooth. Numerical experiments indicate agreement with the theoretical bounds and highlight the stability of the numerical method in the advection-dominated regime

On existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium state for an improved Nernst--Planck--Poisson system

This work deals with a model for a mixture of charged constituents introduced in [W. Dreyer et al. Overcoming the shortcomings of the Nernst-Planck model. \emph{Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.}, 15:7075-7086, 2013]. The aim of this paper is to give a first existence and uniqueness result for the equilibrium situation. A main difference to earlier works is a momentum balance involving the gradient of pressure and the Lorenz force which persists in the stationary situation and gives rise to the dependence of the chemical potentials on the particle densities of every species

Further developments on theoretical and computational rheology

Tese financiada pela FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Ciência.Inovação2010, POPH, União Europeia FEDERTese de doutoramento. Engenharia Química e Biológica. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201