Unstructured mesh finite difference/finite element method for the 2D time-space Riesz fractional diffusion equation on irregular convex domains

Fractional differential equations are powerful tools to model the non-locality and spatial heterogeneity evident in many real-world problems. Although numerous numerical methods have been proposed, most of them are limited to regular domains and uniform meshes. For irregular convex domains, the treatment of the space fractional derivative becomes more challenging and the general methods are no longer feasible. In this work, we propose a novel numerical technique based on the Galerkin finite element method (FEM) with an unstructured mesh to deal with the space fractional derivative on arbitrarily shaped convex and non-convex domains, which is the most original and significant contribution of this paper. Moreover, we present a second order finite difference scheme for the temporal fractional derivative. In addition, the stability and convergence of the method are discussed and numerical examples on different irregular convex domains and non-convex domains illustrate the reliability of the method. We also extend the theory and develop a computational model for the case of a multiply-connected domain. Finally, to demonstrate the versatility and applicability of our method, we solve the coupled two-dimensional fractional Bloch–Torrey equation on a human brain-like domain and exhibit the effects of the time and space fractional indices on the behaviour of the transverse magnetization.