9,543 research outputs found
Solving Nonlinear Parabolic Equations by a Strongly Implicit Finite-Difference Scheme
We discuss the numerical solution of nonlinear parabolic partial differential
equations, exhibiting finite speed of propagation, via a strongly implicit
finite-difference scheme with formal truncation error . Our application of interest is the spreading of
viscous gravity currents in the study of which these type of differential
equations arise. Viscous gravity currents are low Reynolds number (viscous
forces dominate inertial forces) flow phenomena in which a dense, viscous fluid
displaces a lighter (usually immiscible) fluid. The fluids may be confined by
the sidewalls of a channel or propagate in an unconfined two-dimensional (or
axisymmetric three-dimensional) geometry. Under the lubrication approximation,
the mathematical description of the spreading of these fluids reduces to
solving the so-called thin-film equation for the current's shape . To
solve such nonlinear parabolic equations we propose a finite-difference scheme
based on the Crank--Nicolson idea. We implement the scheme for problems
involving a single spatial coordinate (i.e., two-dimensional, axisymmetric or
spherically-symmetric three-dimensional currents) on an equispaced but
staggered grid. We benchmark the scheme against analytical solutions and
highlight its strong numerical stability by specifically considering the
spreading of non-Newtonian power-law fluids in a variable-width confined
channel-like geometry (a "Hele-Shaw cell") subject to a given mass
conservation/balance constraint. We show that this constraint can be
implemented by re-expressing it as nonlinear flux boundary conditions on the
domain's endpoints. Then, we show numerically that the scheme achieves its full
second-order accuracy in space and time. We also highlight through numerical
simulations how the proposed scheme accurately respects the mass
conservation/balance constraint.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures, Springer book class; v2 includes improvements
and corrections; to appear as a contribution in "Applied Wave Mathematics II
Positivity-preserving, energy stable numerical schemes for the Cahn-Hilliard equation with logarithmic potential
We present and analyze finite difference numerical schemes for the Allen
Cahn/Cahn-Hilliard equation with a logarithmic Flory Huggins energy potential.
Both the first order and second order accurate temporal algorithms are
considered. In the first order scheme, we treat the nonlinear logarithmic terms
and the surface diffusion term implicitly, and update the linear expansive term
and the mobility explicitly. We provide a theoretical justification that, this
numerical algorithm has a unique solution such that the positivity is always
preserved for the logarithmic arguments. In particular, our analysis reveals a
subtle fact: the singular nature of the logarithmic term around the values of
and 1 prevents the numerical solution reaching these singular values, so
that the numerical scheme is always well-defined as long as the numerical
solution stays similarly bounded at the previous time step. Furthermore, an
unconditional energy stability of the numerical scheme is derived, without any
restriction for the time step size. The unique solvability and the
positivity-preserving property for the second order scheme are proved using
similar ideas, in which the singular nature of the logarithmic term plays an
essential role. For both the first and second order accurate schemes, we are
able to derive an optimal rate convergence analysis, which gives the full order
error estimate. The case with a non-constant mobility is analyzed as well. We
also describe a practical and efficient multigrid solver for the proposed
numerical schemes, and present some numerical results, which demonstrate the
robustness of the numerical schemes
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