Numerical simulations of diffusion in cellular flows at high Péclet numbers

Yuliya Gorb; Dukjin Nam; Alexei Novikov

doi:10.3934/dcdsb.2011.15.75

Article Contents

2011, Volume 15, Issue 1: 75-92. Doi: 10.3934/dcdsb.2011.15.75

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Numerical simulations of diffusion in cellular flows at high Péclet numbers

1.
Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204
2.
Department of Mathematics, Ajou University, Suwon 443-749
3.
Department of Mathematics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, State College, PA 16802

Received: October 31, 2009

Revised: March 31, 2010

Published: June 2011

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Abstract

We study numerically the solutions of the steady advection-diffu-sion problem in bounded domains with prescribed boundary conditions when the Péclet number Pe is large. We approximate the solution at high, but finite Péclet numbers by the solution to a certain asymptotic problem in the limit Pe $\to \infty$. The asymptotic problem is a system of coupled 1-dimensional heat equations on the graph of streamline-separatrices of the cellular flow, that was developed in [21]. This asymptotic model is implemented numerically using a finite volume scheme with exponential grids. We conclude that the asymptotic model provides for a good approximation of the solutions of the steady advection-diffusion problem at large Péclet numbers, and even when Pe is not too large.

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Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 65-05, 35Q35, 35J25, 65N08.

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References

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