Uniformly convergent novel finite difference methods for singularly perturbed reaction–diffusion equations

In this paper, we construct a kind of novel finite difference (NFD) method for solving singularly perturbed reaction–diffusion problems. Different from directly truncating the high‐order derivative terms of the Taylor's series in the traditional finite difference method, we rearrange the Taylor's expansion in a more elaborate way based on the original equation to develop the NFD scheme for 1D problems. It is proved that this approach not only can highly improve the calculation accuracy but also is uniformly convergent. Then, applying alternating direction implicit technique, the newly deduced schemes are extended to 2D equations, and the uniform error estimation based on Shishkin mesh is derived, too. Finally, numerical experiments are presented to verify the high computational accuracy and theoretical prediction.     

Lyapunov functionals for reaction–diffusion equations with memory

We consider a reaction‐diffusion equation in which the usual diffusion term also depends on the past history of the diffusion itself. This equation has been analysed by several authors, with an emphasis on the longtime behaviour of the solutions. In this respect, the first results have been obtained by using the past history approach. They show that the equation, subject to a suitable boundary condition, defines a dissipative dynamical system which possesses a global attractor. A similar theorem has been recently proved by Chepyzhov and Miranville, using a different method based on the notion of trajectory attractors. In addition, those authors provide sufficient conditions that ensure the existence of a Lyapunov functional. Here we show that a similar result can be demonstrated within the past history approach, with less restrictive conditions. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A parameter‐robust numerical method for a system of reaction–diffusion equations in two dimensions

A system of M(≥ 2) coupled singularly perturbed linear reaction–diffusion equations is considered on the unit square. Under certain hypotheses on the coupling, a maximum principle is established for the differential operator. The relationship between compatibility conditions at the corners of the square and the smoothness of the solution on the closed domain is fully described. A decomposition of the solution of the system is constructed. A finite‐difference method for the solution of the system on a Shishkin mesh is presented, and it is proved that the computed solution is second‐order accurate (up to a logarithmic factor). Numerical results are given to support this result and to investigate the effect of weaker compatibility assumptions on the data. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2007     

A parameter-uniform Schwarz method for a coupled system of reaction–diffusion equations

We consider an arbitrarily sized coupled system of one-dimensional reaction–diffusion problems that are singularly perturbed in nature. We describe an algorithm that uses a discrete Schwarz method on three overlapping subdomains, extending the method in [H. MacMullen, J.J.H. Miller, E. O’Riordan, G.I. Shishkin, A second-order parameter-uniform overlapping Schwarz method for reaction-diffusion problems with boundary layers, J. Comput. Appl. Math. 130 (2001) 231–244] to a coupled system. On each subdomain we use a standard finite difference operator on a uniform mesh. We prove that when appropriate subdomains are used the method produces ε-uniform results. Furthermore we improve upon the analysis of the above-mentioned reference to show that, for small ε, just one iteration is required to achieve the expected accuracy.     

Numerical simulation of reaction–diffusion equations on spherical domains

The two-variable reaction diffusion equations on the spherical domain is considered and simulated, using the semi-implicit Euler finite difference method. It is shown that the method keeps the kinetics from overshooting the stable branches when a large time step is used in the simulation.     

Higher-order compact finite difference method for systems of reaction–diffusion equations

This paper is concerned with a compact finite difference method for solving systems of two-dimensional reaction–diffusion equations. This method has the accuracy of fourth-order in both space and time. The existence and uniqueness of the finite difference solution are investigated by the method of upper and lower solutions, without any monotone requirement on the nonlinear term. Three monotone iterative algorithms are provided for solving the resulting discrete system efficiently, and the sequences of iterations converge monotonically to a unique solution of the system. A theoretical comparison result for the various monotone sequences is given. The convergence of the finite difference solution to the continuous solution is proved, and Richardson extrapolation is used to achieve fourth-order accuracy in time. An application is given to an enzyme–substrate reaction–diffusion problem, and some numerical results are presented to demonstrate the high efficiency and advantages of this new approach.     

Semi‐implicit spectral collocation methods for reaction‐diffusion equations on annuli

In this article, we develop numerical schemes for solving stiff reaction‐diffusion equations on annuli based on Chebyshev and Fourier spectral spatial discretizations and integrating factor methods for temporal discretizations. Stiffness is resolved by treating the linear diffusion through the use of integrating factors and the nonlinear reaction term implicitly. Root locus curves provide a succinct analysis of the A‐stability of these schemes. By utilizing spectral collocation methods, we avoid the use of potentially expensive transforms between the physical and spectral spaces. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of these schemes. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 27: 1113–1129, 2011     

Nonstandard finite difference schemes for Michaelis–Menten type reaction‐diffusion equations

We compare and investigate the performance of the exact scheme of the Michaelis–Menten (M–M) ordinary differential equation with several new nonstandard finite difference (NSFD) schemes that we construct using Mickens' rules. Furthermore, the exact scheme of the M–M equation is used to design several dynamically consistent NSFD schemes for related reaction‐diffusion equations, advection‐reaction equations, and advection‐reaction‐diffusion equations. Numerical simulations that support the theory and demonstrate computationally the power of NSFD schemes are presented. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

A compact adaptive approach for degenerate singular reaction‐diffusion equations

This article concerns a compact adaptive method for the numerical solution of nonlinear degenerate singular reaction‐diffusion equations. The partial differential equation problems exhibit strong quenching blow‐up type singularities, and are critical in numerous applications ranging from optimized internal combustion designs to oil pipeline decay predictions. Adaptive schemes of fourth order in space and second order in time are acquired and discussed. Nonuniform spatial and temporal grids are utilized through suitable adaptations. Rigorous analysis is given for the numerical stability, and computational experiments are performed to illustrate our conclusions.     

A hyperbolic reaction–diffusion model for the hantavirus infection

A hyperbolic reaction–diffusion model for the hantavirus infection, generalizing the parabolic set of equations recently derived by Abramson and Kenkre, is proposed within the context of Extended Thermodynamics. The model, as in the parabolic case, captures some of the realistic features of the dynamics of hantavirus in mice population, while it avoids the unphysical features concerning the instantaneous diffusive effects typical of parabolic equations. Traveling wave solutions, related to the spread of the infection in the landscape, are investigated. Both analytical and numerical results obtained herein are discussed and validated from the behavior of the biological system. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonstandard finite difference schemes for reaction‐diffusion equations

We construct finite difference schemes for a particular class of one‐space dimension, nonlinear reaction‐diffusion PDEs. The use of nonstandard finite difference methods and the imposition of a positivity condition constrain the schemes to be explicit and allow the determination of functional relations between the space and time step‐sizes. The general procedure is illustrated by applying it to several important model systems of PDEs © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 201–214, 1999     

Linearized factorization techniques for multidimensional reaction—diffusion equations

An iterative predictor—corrector technique for the elimination of the approximate factorization errors which result from the factorization of linearized θ-methods in multidimensional reaction—diffusion equations is proposed, and its convergence and linear stability are analyzed. Four approximate factorization techniques which do not account for the approximate factorization errors are developed. The first technique uses the full Jacobian matrix of the reaction terms, requires the inversion of, in general, dense matrices, and its approximate factorization errors are second-order accurate in time. The second and third methods approximate the Jacobian matrix by diagonal or triangular ones which are easily inverted but their approximate factorization errors are, however, first-order accurate in time. The fourth approximately factorized method has approximate factorization errors which are second-order accurate in time and requires the inversion of lower and upper triangular matrices. The techniques are applied to a nonlinear, two-species, two-dimensional system of reaction—diffusion equations in order to determine the approximate factorization errors and those resulting from the approximations to the Jacobian matrix as functions of the allocation of the reaction terms, space and time.     

A reaction–diffusion problem with a reaction front

We state a 1D model with quasi-stationary gas flows approximation for a carbon reactivity test in the production of silicon. The mathematical problem we formulate is a non-linear boundary value problem for a third-order ordinary differential equation with non-linear boundary conditions, which are non-local in time. We prove existence and uniqueness of a classical solution and provide a numerical example. © 1998 B. G. Teubner Stuttgart–John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Pullback attractors for the norm-to-weak continuous process and application to the nonautonomous reaction–diffusion equations

In this paper, we introduce the concept of norm-to-weak continuous process in a Banach space, and obtain the existence of pullback attractors for this kind of process. Then we give a new method for proving the existence of the pullback attractors. As an application, we obtain the existence of pullback attractors for nonautonomous reaction–diffusion equation in with exponential growth of the external force.     

Numerical exploration of a system of reaction–diffusion equations with internal and transient layers

A reaction pathway for a classical two-species reaction is considered with one reaction that is several orders of magnitudes faster than the other. To sustain the fast reaction, the transport and reaction effects must balance in such a way as to give an internal layer in space. For the steady-state problem, existing singular perturbation analysis rigorously proves the correct scaling of the internal layer. This work reports the results of exploratory numerical simulations that are designed to provide guidance for the analysis to be performed for the transient problem. The full model is comprised of a system of time-dependent reaction–diffusion equations coupled through the non-linear reaction terms with mixed Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. In addition to internal layers in space, the time-dependent problem possesses an initial transient layer in time. To resolve both types of layers as accurately as possible, we design a finite element method with analytic evaluation of all integrals. This avoids all errors associated with the evaluation of the non-linearities and allows us to provide an analytic Jacobian matrix to the implicit time stepping method. The numerical results show that the method resolves the localized sharp gradients accurately and can predict the scaling of the internal layers for the time-dependent problem.     

Asymptotic stability of traveling wave fronts in nonlocal reaction–diffusion equations with delay

This paper is concerned with the asymptotic stability of traveling wave fronts of a class of nonlocal reaction–diffusion equations with delay. Under monostable assumption, we prove that the traveling wave front is exponentially stable by means of the (technical) weighted energy method, when the initial perturbation around the wave is suitable small in a weighted norm. The exponential convergent rate is also obtained. Finally, we apply our results to some population models and obtain some new results, which recover, complement and/or improve a number of existing ones.     

Normal deviations from the averaged motion for some reaction–diffusion equations with fast oscillating perturbation

We study the normalized difference between the solution u of a reaction–diffusion equation in a bounded interval [0,L], perturbed by a fast oscillating term arising as the solution of a stochastic reaction–diffusion equation with a strong mixing behavior, and the solution of the corresponding averaged equation. We assume the smoothness of the reaction coefficient and we prove that a central limit type theorem holds. Namely, we show that the normalized difference converges weakly in C([0,T];L²(0,L)) to the solution of the linearized equation, where an extra Gaussian term appears. Such a term is explicitly given.     

Global a posteriori error estimates for convection–reaction–diffusion problems

In this note we propose a nonstandard technique for constructing global a posteriori error estimates for the stationary convection–reaction–diffusion equation. In order to estimate the approximation error in appropriate weighted energy norms, which measures the overall quality of the approximations, the underlying bilinear form is decomposed into several terms which can be directly computed or easily estimated from above using elementary tools of functional analysis. Several auxiliary parameters are introduced to construct such a splitting and tune the resulting upper error bound. It is demonstrated how these parameters can be chosen in some natural and convenient way for computations so that the weighted energy norm of the error is almost recovered, which shows that the estimates proposed are, in fact, quasi-sharp. The presented methodology is completely independent of numerical techniques used to compute approximate solutions. In particular, it is applicable to approximations which fail to satisfy the Galerkin orthogonality, e.g., due to an inconsistent stabilization, flux limiting, low-order quadrature rules, round-off and iteration errors etc. Moreover, the only constant that appears in the proposed error estimates is of global nature and comes from the Friedrichs–Poincaré inequality.     

Algebraic multigrid preconditioners for the bidomain reaction–diffusion system

The so-called bidomain system is possibly the most complete model for the cardiac bioelectric activity. It consists of a reaction–diffusion system, modeling the intra, extracellular and transmembrane potentials, coupled through a nonlinear reaction term with a stiff system of ordinary differential equations describing the ionic currents through the cellular membrane. In this paper we address the problem of efficiently solving the large linear system arising in the finite element discretization of the bidomain model, when a semiimplicit method in time is employed. We analyze the use of structured algebraic multigrid preconditioners on two major formulations of the model, and report on our numerical experience under different discretization parameters and various discontinuity properties of the conductivity tensors. Our numerical results show that the less exercised formulation provides the best overall performance on a typical simulation of the myocardium excitation process.     

Quenching for a reaction–diffusion system with logarithmic singularity

In this paper, we study the quenching phenomenon for a reaction–diffusion system with singular logarithmic source terms and positive Dirichlet boundary conditions. Some sufficient conditions for quenching of the solutions in finite time are obtained, and the blow-up of time-derivatives at the quenching point is verified. Furthermore, under appropriate hypotheses, the non-simultaneous quenching of the system is proved, and the estimates of quenching rate is given.