A fractional‐order Jacobi Tau method for a class of time‐fractional PDEs with variable coefficients

This paper presents a shifted fractional‐order Jacobi orthogonal function (SFJF) based on the definition of the classical Jacobi polynomial. A new fractional integral operational matrix of the SFJF is presented and derived. We propose the spectral Tau method, in conjunction with the operational matrices of the Riemann–Liouville fractional integral for SFJF and derivative for Jacobi polynomial, to solve a class of time‐fractional partial differential equations with variable coefficients. In this algorithm, the approximate solution is expanded by means of both SFJFs for temporal discretization and Jacobi polynomials for spatial discretization. The proposed tau scheme, both in temporal and spatial discretizations, successfully reduced such problem into a system of algebraic equations, which is far easier to be solved. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the high accuracy and superiority of the proposed algorithm over existing ones. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A MUSCL smoothed particles hydrodynamics for compressible multi‐material flows

By incorporating the Monotone Upwind Scheme of Conservation Law (MUSCL) scheme into the smoothed particles hydrodynamics (SPH) method and making use of an interparticle contact algorithm, we present a MUSCL–SPH scheme of second order for multifluid computations, which extends the Riemann‐solved‐based SPH method. The numerical tests demonstrate high accuracy and resolution of the scheme for both shocks, contact discontinuities, and rarefaction waves in the one‐dimensional shock tube problem. For the two‐dimensional cylindrical Noh and shock‐bubble interaction problems, the MUSCL–SPH scheme can resolve shocks well. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order finite difference discretization strategy based on extrapolation for convection diffusion equations

We propose a new high‐order finite difference discretization strategy, which is based on the Richardson extrapolation technique and an operator interpolation scheme, to solve convection diffusion equations. For a particular implementation, we solve a fine grid equation and a coarse grid equation by using a fourth‐order compact difference scheme. Then we combine the two approximate solutions and use the Richardson extrapolation to compute a sixth‐order accuracy coarse grid solution. A sixth‐order accuracy fine grid solution is obtained by interpolating the sixth‐order coarse grid solution using an operator interpolation scheme. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficacy of the proposed finite difference discretization strategy, compared to the sixth‐order combined compact difference (CCD) scheme, and the standard fourth‐order compact difference (FOC) scheme. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 20: 18–32, 2004.     

Perfect simulation of processes with long memory: A “coupling into and from the past” algorithm

We describe a new algorithm for the perfect simulation of variable length Markov chains and random systems with perfect connections. This algorithm, which generalizes Propp and Wilson's simulation scheme, is based on the idea of coupling into and from the past. It improves on existing algorithms by relaxing the conditions on the kernel and by accelerating convergence, even in the simple case of finite order Markov chains. Although chains of variable or infinite order have been widely investigated for decades, their use in applied probability, from information theory to bio‐informatics and linguistics, has recently led to considerable renewed interest. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 46, 300–319, 2015     

Numerical methods for weak solution of wave equation with van der Pol type nonlinear boundary conditions

We develop computational methods for solving wave equation with van der Pol type nonlinear boundary conditions under the framework of weak solutions. Based on the wave reflection on the boundaries, we first solve the Riemann invariants by constructing two iteration mappings, and then show that the weak solution can be obtained by the integration of the Riemann invariants on the boundaries. If the compatible conditions are not satisfied or only hold with a low degree, a high‐order integration method is developed for the numerical solution. When the initial condition is sufficiently smooth and compatible conditions hold with a sufficient degree, we establish a sixth‐order finite difference scheme, which only needs to solve a linear system at any given time instance. Numerical experiments are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 373–398, 2016     

A new combined finite element‐upwind finite volume method for convection‐dominated diffusion problems

In this article, we develop a combined finite element‐weighted upwind finite volume method for convection‐dominated diffusion problems in two dimensions, which discretizes the diffusion term with the standard finite element scheme, and the convection and source terms with the weighted upwind finite volume scheme. The developed method leads to a totally new scheme for convection‐dominated problems, which overcomes numerical oscillation, avoids numerical dispersion, and has high‐order accuracy. Stability analyses of the scheme are given for the problems with constant coefficients. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the stability and optimal convergence of our proposed method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 799–818, 2016     

Analysis of the energy‐conserved S‐FDTD scheme for variable coefficient Maxwell's equations in disk domains

In this paper, we analyze the energy‐conserved splitting finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) scheme for variable coefficient Maxwell's equations in two‐dimensional disk domains. The approach is energy‐conserved, unconditionally stable, and effective. We strictly prove that the EC‐S‐FDTD scheme for the variable coefficient Maxwell's equations in disk domains is of second order accuracy both in time and space. It is also strictly proved that the scheme is energy‐conserved, and the discrete divergence‐free is of second order convergence. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical results, and practical test is simulated as well to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed EC‐S‐FDTD scheme. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high order finite volume method for one dimensional nonlocal reactive flows of parabolic type

In this paper, we consider a high order finite volume approximation of one‐dimensional nonlocal reactive flows of parabolic type. The method is obtained by discretizing in space by arbitrary order vertex‐centered finite volumes, followed by a modified Simpson quadrature scheme for the time stepping. Compared to the existed finite volume methods, this new finite volume scheme could achieve the desired accuracy with less data storage by employing higher‐order trial spaces. The finite volume approximations are proved to possess optimal order convergence rates in the H¹‐norm and L²‐norm, which are also confirmed by numerical tests. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fourth‐order compact algorithm for nonlinear reaction‐diffusion equations with Neumann boundary conditions

In this article, we discuss a scheme for dealing with Neumann and mixed boundary conditions using a compact stencil. The resulting compact algorithm for solving systems of nonlinear reaction‐diffusion equations is fourth‐order accurate in both the temporal and spatial dimensions. We also prove that the standard second‐order approximation to zero Neumann boundary conditions provides fourth‐order accuracy when the nonlinear reaction term is independent of the spatial variables. Numerical examples, including an application of this algorithm to a mathematical model describing frontal polymerization process, are presented in the article to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the scheme. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005     

A Differential Free Point Generation Scheme in the Differential Evolution Algorithm

In this paper we derive the probability distribution of trial points in the differential evolution (de) algorithm, in particular the probability distribution of points generated by mutation. We propose a point generation scheme that uses an approximation to this distribution. The scheme can dispense with the differential vector used in the mutation of de. We propose a de algorithm that replaces the differential based mutation scheme with a probability distribution based point generation scheme. We also propose a de algorithm that uses a probabilistic combination of the point generation by the probability distribution and the point generation by mutation. A numerical study is carried out using a set of 50 test problems, many of which are inspired by practical applications. Numerical results suggest that the new algorithms are superior to the original version both in terms of the number of function evaluations and cpu times.     

On a new centered strategy to control the accuracy of weighted essentially non oscillatory algorithm for conservation laws close to discontinuities

In this paper we try to redesign an algorithm analyzed in previous works by Amat et al. in order to obtain a centered strategy aimed to approximate the solution of linear and nonlinear systems of conservation laws. We perform the analysis of the new algorithm in order to explain why the new strategy works close to shocks in the solution of conservation laws. The objective is to force the use of the most centered stencil of those used whenever the data are affected by the presence of a high gradient.     

A high‐order compact scheme for the nonlinear fractional Klein–Gordon equation

In this article, a high‐order finite difference scheme for a kind of nonlinear fractional Klein–Gordon equation is derived. The time fractional derivative is described in the Caputo sense. The solvability of the difference system is discussed by the Leray–Schauder fixed point theorem, while the stability and L_∞ convergence of the finite difference scheme are proved by the energy method. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the theoretical results. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 706–722, 2015     

Integrated fast and high‐accuracy computation of convection diffusion equations using multiscale multigrid method

We present an explicit sixth‐order compact finite difference scheme for fast high‐accuracy numerical solutions of the two‐dimensional convection diffusion equation with variable coefficients. The sixth‐order scheme is based on the well‐known fourth‐order compact (FOC) scheme, the Richardson extrapolation technique, and an operator interpolation scheme. For a particular implementation, we use multiscale multigrid method to compute the fourth‐order solutions on both the coarse grid and the fine grid. Then, an operator interpolation scheme combined with the Richardson extrapolation technique is used to compute a sixth‐order accurate fine grid solution. We compare the computed accuracy and the implementation cost of the new scheme with the standard nine‐point FOC scheme and Sun–Zhang's sixth‐order method. Two convection diffusion problems are solved numerically to validate our proposed sixth‐order scheme. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2011     

A high‐order ADI finite difference scheme for a 3D reaction‐diffusion equation with neumann boundary condition

In this article, we extend the fourth‐order compact boundary scheme in Liao et al. (Numer Methods Partial Differential Equations 18 (2002), 340–354) to a 3D problem and then combine it with the fourth‐order compact alternating direction implicit (ADI) method in Gu et al. (J Comput Appl Math 155 (2003), 1–17) to solve the 3D reaction‐diffusion equation with Neumann boundary condition. First, the reaction‐diffusion equation is solved with a compact fourth‐order finite difference method based on the Padé approximation, which is then combined with the ADI method and a fourth‐order compact scheme to approximate the Neumann boundary condition, to obtain fourth order accuracy in space. The accuracy in the temporal dimension is improved to fourth order by applying the Richardson extrapolation technique, although the unconditional stability of the numerical method is proved, and several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed new algorithm. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

High‐order numerical solution of second‐order one‐dimensional hyperbolic telegraph equation using a shifted Gegenbauer pseudospectral method

We present a high‐order shifted Gegenbauer pseudospectral method (SGPM) to solve numerically the second‐order one‐dimensional hyperbolic telegraph equation provided with some initial and Dirichlet boundary conditions. The framework of the numerical scheme involves the recast of the problem into its integral formulation followed by its discretization into a system of well‐conditioned linear algebraic equations. The integral operators are numerically approximated using some novel shifted Gegenbauer operational matrices of integration. We derive the error formula of the associated numerical quadratures. We also present a method to optimize the constructed operational matrix of integration by minimizing the associated quadrature error in some optimality sense. We study the error bounds and convergence of the optimal shifted Gegenbauer operational matrix of integration. Moreover, we construct the relation between the operational matrices of integration of the shifted Gegenbauer polynomials and standard Gegenbauer polynomials. We derive the global collocation matrix of the SGPM, and construct an efficient computational algorithm for the solution of the collocation equations. We present a study on the computational cost of the developed computational algorithm, and a rigorous convergence and error analysis of the introduced method. Four numerical test examples have been carried out to verify the effectiveness, the accuracy, and the exponential convergence of the method. The SGPM is a robust technique, which can be extended to solve a wide range of problems arising in numerous applications. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 307–349, 2016     

A high‐order compact boundary value method for solving one‐dimensional heat equations

We combine fourth‐order boundary value methods (BVMs) for discretizing the temporal variable with fourth‐order compact difference scheme for discretizing the spatial variable to solve one‐dimensional heat equations. This class of new compact difference schemes achieve fourth‐order accuracy in both temporal and spatial variables and are unconditionally stable due to the favorable stability property of BVMs. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the new compact difference scheme, compared to the standard second‐order Crank‐Nicolson scheme. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 19: 846–857, 2003.     

A forward scheme for backward SDEs

We introduce a forward scheme for simulating backward SDEs. Compared to existing schemes, ours avoids high order nestings of conditional expectations backwards in time. In this way the error, when approximating the conditional expectation, depending on the time partition, is significantly reduced. Besides this generic result, we present an implementable algorithm and prove its convergence. Finally, we demonstrate the strength of the new algorithm by solving a financial problem numerically.     

A memory‐efficient finite volume method for advection‐diffusion‐reaction systems with nonsmooth sources

We present a parallel matrix‐free implicit finite volume scheme for the solution of unsteady three‐dimensional advection‐diffusion‐reaction equations with smooth and Dirac‐Delta source terms. The scheme is formally second order in space and a Newton–Krylov method is employed for the appearing nonlinear systems in the implicit time integration. The matrix‐vector product required is hardcoded without any approximations, obtaining a matrix‐free method that needs little storage and is well‐suited for parallel implementation. We describe the matrix‐free implementation of the method in detail and give numerical evidence of its second‐order convergence in the presence of smooth source terms. For nonsmooth source terms, the convergence order drops to one half. Furthermore, we demonstrate the method's applicability for the long‐time simulation of calcium flow in heart cells and show its parallel scaling. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq31: 143–167, 2015     

A vertex‐centered and positivity‐preserving scheme for anisotropic diffusion equations on general polyhedral meshes

We propose a new nonlinear positivity‐preserving finite volume scheme for anisotropic diffusion problems on general polyhedral meshes with possibly nonplanar faces. The scheme is a vertex‐centered one where the edge‐centered, face‐centered, and cell‐centered unknowns are treated as auxiliary ones that can be computed by simple second‐order and positivity‐preserving interpolation algorithms. Different from most existing positivity‐preserving schemes, the presented scheme is based on a special nonlinear two‐point flux approximation that has a fixed stencil and does not require the convex decomposition of the co‐normal. More interesting is that the flux discretization is actually performed on a fixed tetrahedral subcell of the primary cell, which makes the scheme very easy to be implemented on polyhedral meshes with star‐shaped cells. Moreover, it is suitable for polyhedral meshes with nonplanar faces, and it does not suffer the so‐called numerical heat‐barrier issue. The truncation error is analyzed rigorously, while the Picard method and its Anderson acceleration are used for the solution of the resulting nonlinear system. Numerical experiments are also provided to demonstrate the second‐order accuracy and well positivity of the numerical solution for heterogeneous and anisotropic diffusion problems on severely distorted grids.     

High‐order characteristic‐tracking strategy for simulation of a nonlinear advection–diffusion equation

In this study, new high‐order backward semi‐Lagrangian methods are developed to solve nonlinear advection–diffusion type problems, which are realized using high‐order characteristic‐tracking strategies. The proposed characteristic‐tracking strategies are second‐order L‐stable and third‐order L(α)‐stable methods, which are based on a classical implicit multistep method combined with a error‐correction method. We also use backward differentiation formulas and the fourth‐order finite‐difference scheme for diffusion problem discretization in the temporal and spatial domains, respectively. To demonstrate the adaptability and efficiency of these time‐discretization strategies, we apply these methods to nonlinear advection–diffusion type problems such as the viscous Burgers' equation. Through simulations, not only the temporal and spatial accuracies are numerically evaluated but also the proposed methods are shown to be superior to the compared existing characteristic‐tracking methods under the same rates of convergence in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Finally, we have shown that the proposed method well preserves the energy and mass when the viscosity coefficient becomes zero.