Alina Chertock

A second-order positivity preserving central-upwind scheme for chemotaxis and haptotaxis models

The paper is concerned with development of a new finite-volume method for a class of chemotaxis models and for a closely related haptotaxis model. In its simplest form, the chemotaxis model is described by a system of nonlinear PDEs: a convection-diffusion equation for the cell density coupled with a reaction-diffusion equation for the chemoattractant concentration. The first step in the derivation of the new method is made by adding an equation for the chemoattractant concentration gradient to the original system. We then show that the convective part of the resulting system is typically of a mixed hyperbolic-elliptic type and therefore straightforward numerical methods for the studied system may be unstable. The proposed method is based on the application of the second-order central-upwind scheme, originally developed for hyperbolic systems of conservation laws in Kurganov et al. (SIAM J Sci Comput 21:707–740, 2001), to the extended system of PDEs. We show that the proposed second-order scheme is positivity preserving, which is a very important stability property of the method. The scheme is applied to a number of two-dimensional problems including the most commonly used Keller–Segel chemotaxis model and its modern extensions as well as to a haptotaxis system modeling tumor invasion into surrounding healthy tissue. Our numerical results demonstrate high accuracy, stability, and robustness of the proposed scheme.

Strict Stability of High-Order Compact Implicit Finite-Difference Schemes

Temporal, or “strict,” stability of approximation to PDEs is much more difficult to achieve than the “classical” Lax stability. In this paper, we present a class of finite-difference schemes for hyperbolic initial boundary value problems in one and two space dimensions that possess the property of strict stability. The approximations are constructed so that all eigenvalues of corresponding differentiation matrix have a nonpositive real part. Boundary conditions are imposed by using penalty-like terms. Fourth- and sixth-order compact implicit finite-difference schemes are constructed and analyzed. Computational efficacy of the approach is corroborated by a series of numerical tests in 1-D and 2-D scalar problems.

A Finite-Volume Method for Nonlinear Nonlocal Equations with a Gradient Flow Structure

We propose a positivity preserving entropy decreasingfinitevolumescheme for nonlinear nonlocal equations with a gradient flow structure. These properties al- low for accurate computations of stationary states and long-time asymptotics demon- strated by suitably chosen test cases in which these featuresoftheschemearee ssential. The proposed scheme is able to cope with non-smooth stationary states, different time scales including metastability, as well as concentrations and self-similar behavior in- duced by singular nonlocal kernels. We use the scheme to explore properties of these equations beyond their present theoretical knowledge. AMS subject classifications :6 5M08, 35R09, 34B10

Self-similar intermediate asymptotics for a degenerate parabolic filtration-absorption equation

The equation partial differential(t)u = u partial differential(xx)(2)u -(c-1)( partial differential(x)u)(2) is known in literature as a qualitative mathematical model of some biological phenomena. Here this equation is derived as a model of the groundwater flow in a water-absorbing fissurized porous rock; therefore, we refer to this equation as a filtration-absorption equation. A family of self-similar solutions to this equation is constructed. Numerical investigation of the evolution of non-self-similar solutions to the Cauchy problems having compactly supported initial conditions is performed. Numerical experiments indicate that the self-similar solutions obtained represent intermediate asymptotics of a wider class of solutions when the influence of details of the initial conditions disappears but the solution is still far from the ultimate state: identical zero. An open problem caused by the nonuniqueness of the solution of the Cauchy problem is discussed.

Formation of discontinuities in flux-saturated degenerate parabolic equations

We endow the nonlinear degenerate parabolic equation used to describe propagation of thermal waves in plasma or in a porous medium, with a mechanism for flux saturation intended to correct the nonphysical gradient-flux relations at high gradients. We study both analytically and numerically the resulting equation: ut = [unQ(g(u)x)]x, n>0, where Q is a bounded increasing function. This model reveals that for n>1 the motion of the front is controlled by the saturation mechanism and instead of the typical infinite gradients resulting from the linear flux-gradients relations, Q~ux, we obtain a sharp, shock-like front, typically associated with nonlinear hyperbolic phenomena. We prove that if the initial support is compact, independently of the smoothness of the initial datum inside the support, a sharp front discontinuity forms in a finite time, and until then the front does not expand.

A New Sticky Particle Method for Pressureless Gas Dynamics

We first present a new sticky particle method for the system of pressureless gas dynamics. The method is based on the idea of sticky particles, which seems to work perfectly well for the models with point mass concentrations and strong singularity formations. In this method, the solution is sought in the form of a linear combination of

Central-upwind schemes for the system of shallow water equations with horizontal temperature gradients

\delta

PEDESTRIAN FLOW MODELS WITH SLOWDOWN INTERACTIONS

-functions, whose positions and coefficients represent locations, masses, and momenta of the particles, respectively. The locations of the particles are then evolved in time according to a system of ODEs, obtained from a weak formulation of the system of PDEs. The particle velocities are approximated in a special way using global conservative piecewise polynomial reconstruction technique over an auxiliary Cartesian mesh. This velocities correction procedure leads to a desired interaction between the particles and hence to clustering of particles at the singularities followed by the merger of the clustered particles into a new particle located at their center of mass. The proposed sticky particle method is then analytically studied. We show that our particle approximation satisfies the original system of pressureless gas dynamics in a weak sense, but only within a certain residual, which is rigorously estimated. We also explain why the relevant errors should diminish as the total number of particles increases. Finally, we numerically test our new sticky particle method on a variety of one- and two-dimensional problems as well as compare the obtained results with those computed by a high-resolution finite-volume scheme. Our simulations demonstrate the superiority of the results obtained by the sticky particle method that accurately tracks the evolution of developing discontinuities and does not smear the developing

Convergence of a Particle Method and Global Weak Solutions of a Family of Evolutionary PDEs

\delta

Central-Upwind Schemes for Boussinesq Paradigm Equations

-shocks.