Spatio-Temporal Organization in a Morphochemical Electrodeposition Model: Analysis and Numerical Simulation of Spiral Waves

In this paper we derive Hopf instability conditions for the morphochemical mathematical model for alloy electrodeposition introduced and experimentally validated in Bozzini et al. (J. Solid State Electrochem., 17:467–479, 2013). Using normal form theory we show that in the neighborhood of the Hopf bifurcation, essential features of the system dynamics are captured by a specific Complex Ginzburg-Landau Equation (CGLE). The derived CGLE yields analytical results on the existence and stability of spiral waves. Moreover, the arising of spiral instability is discussed in terms of the relevant system parameters and the related phenomenology is investigated numerically. To face with the numerical approximation of the spiral structures and of their longtime oscillating behavior we apply an Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) method based on high order finite differences in space.