Jorge Eduardo Macías-Díaz

An energy-based computational method in the analysis of the transmission of energy in a chain of coupled oscillators

In this paper we study the phenomenon of nonlinear supratransmission in a semi-infinite discrete chain of coupled oscillators described by modified sine-Gordon equations with constant external and internal damping, and subject to harmonic external driving at the end. We develop a consistent and conditionally stable finite-difference scheme in order to analyze the effect of damping in the amount of energy injected in the chain of oscillators; numerical bifurcation analyses to determine the dependence of the amplitude at which supratransmission first occurs with respect to the frequency of the driving oscillator are carried out in order to show the consequences of damping on harmonic phonon quenching and the delay of appearance of critical amplitude.

The numerical solution of a generalized Burgers-Huxley equation through a conditionally bounded and symmetry-preserving method

In this article, we propose a non-standard, finite-difference scheme to approximate the solutions of a generalized Burgers-Huxley equation from fluid dynamics. Our numerical method preserves the skew-symmetry of the partial differential equation under study and, under some analytical constraints of the model constants and the computational parameters involved, it is capable of preserving the boundedness and the positivity of the solutions. In the linear regime, the scheme is consistent to first order in time (due partially to the inclusion of a tuning parameter in the approximation of a temporal derivative), and to second order in space. We compare the results of our computational technique against the exact solutions of some particular initial-boundary-value problems. Our simulations indicate that the method presented in this work approximates well the theoretical solutions and, moreover, that the method preserves the boundedness of solutions within the analytical constraints derived here. In the problem of approximating solitary-wave solutions of the model under consideration, we present numerical evidence on the existence of an optimum value of the tuning parameter of our technique, for which a minimum relative error is achieved. Finally, we linearly perturb a steady-state solution of the partial differential equation under investigation, and show that our simulations still converge to the same constant solution, establishing thus robustness of our method in this sense.

A finite-difference scheme to approximate non-negative and bounded solutions of a FitzHugh-Nagumo equation

In this work, we present a finite-difference scheme that preserves the non-negativity and the boundedness of some solutions of a FitzHugh–Nagumo equation. The method is explicit, and it approximates the solutions of the nonlinear, parabolic partial differential equation under study with a consistency of order 𝒪 (Δ t+(Δ x)2) in the Dirichlet regime investigated. We give sufficient conditions in terms of the computational and the model parameters, in order to guarantee the non-negativity and the boundedness of the approximations. We also provide analyses of consistency, linear stability and convergence of the method. Our simulations establish that the properties of non-negativity and boundedness are actually preserved by the scheme when the proposed constraints are satisfied. Finally, a comparison against some second-order accurate methods reveals that our technique is easier to implement computationally, and it is better at preserving the properties of non-negativity and boundedness of the solutions of the FitzHugh–Nagumo equation under study.

On some explicit non-standard methods to approximate nonnegative solutions of a weakly hyperbolic equation with logistic nonlinearity

We introduce non-standard, finite-difference schemes to approximate nonnegative solutions of a weakly hyperbolic (that is, a hyperbolic partial differential equation in which the second-order time-derivative is multiplied by a relatively small positive constant), nonlinear partial differential equation that generalizes the well-known equation of Fisher-KPP from mathematical biology. The methods are consistent of order 𝒪(Δ t+(Δ x)2). As a means to verify the validity of the techniques, we compare our numerical simulations with known exact solutions of particular cases of our model. The results show that there is an excellent agreement between the theory and the computational outcomes.

On a boundedness-preserving semi-linear discretization of a two-dimensional nonlinear diffusion–reaction model

Departing from a method to approximate the solutions of a two-dimensional generalization of the well-known Fishers equation from population dynamics, we extend this computational technique to calculate the solutions of a FitzHugh–Nagumo model and derive conditions under which its positive and bounded analytic solutions are estimated consistently by positive and bounded numerical approximations. The constraints are relatively flexible, and they are provided exclusively in terms of the model coefficients and the computational parameters. The proofs are established with the help of the theory of M-matrices, using the facts that such matrices are non-singular, and that the entries of their inverses are positive numbers. Some numerical experiments are performed in order to show that our method is capable of preserving the positivity and the boundedness of the numerical solutions. The simulations evince a good agreement between the numerical estimations and the corresponding exact solutions derived in this work.

Sufficient conditions for the preservation of the boundedness in a numerical method for a physical model with transport memory and nonlinear damping

Abstract Departing from a finite-difference scheme to approximate solutions of a nonlinear, hyperbolic partial differential equation which generalizes the Burgers–Huxley equation from fluid dynamics, we investigate conditions on the model coefficients and the computational parameters under which positive and bounded initial data evolve into positive and bounded new approximations. The model under investigation includes nonlinear coefficients of damping and advection, and the reaction term extends the reaction law of the classical Fisher–Kolmogorov–Petrovsky–Piscounov equation. The method can be expressed in vector form in terms of a multiplicative matrix which, under certain parametric conditions, becomes an M-matrix. Using the fact that every M-matrix is non-singular and that the entries of its inverse are positive, real numbers, we establish sufficient conditions under which the method provides new, positive and bounded approximations from previous, positive and bounded data and boundary conditions. The numerical results confirm the fact that the conditions derived here are sufficient for the positivity and the boundedness of the approximations; moreover, computational experiments evidence the fact that the method still preserves these properties for values of the model and the numerical parameters outside of the analytic regions of positivity and boundedness. We point out that our simulations show a good agreement between the numerical approximations computed through our method and the corresponding, analytical solutions.

On the convergence of a finite-difference discretization à la Mickens of the generalized Burgers–Huxley equation

In this note, we establish the property of convergence for a finite-difference discretization of a diffusive partial differential equation with generalized Burgers convective law and generalized Hodgkin–Huxley reaction. The numerical method was previously investigated in the literature and, amongst other features of interest, it is a fast and nonlinear technique that is capable of preserving positivity, boundedness and monotonicity. In the present work, we establish that the method is convergent with linear order of convergence in time and quadratic order in space. Some numerical experiments are provided in order to support the analytical results.

Existence and uniqueness of monotone and bounded solutions for a finite-difference discretization à la Mickens of the generalized Burgers–Huxley equation

Departing from a generalized Burgers–Huxley partial differential equation, we provide a Mickens-type, nonlinear, finite-difference discretization of this model. The continuous system is a nonlinear regime for which the existence of travelling-wave solutions has been established previously in the literature. We prove that the method proposed also preserves many of the relevant characteristics of these solutions, such as the positivity, the boundedness and the spatial and the temporal monotonicity. The main results provide conditions that guarantee the existence and the uniqueness of monotone and bounded solutions of our scheme. The technique was implemented and tested computationally, and the results confirm both a good agreement with respect to the travelling-wave solutions reported in the literature and the preservation of the mathematical features of interest.

Numerical treatment of the spherically symmetric solutions of a generalized Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piscounov equation

In the present work, the connection of the generalized Fisher-KPP equation to physical and biological fields is noted. Radially symmetric solutions to the generalized Fisher-KPP equation are considered, and analytical results for the positivity and asymptotic stability of solutions to the corresponding time-independent elliptic differential equation are quoted. An energy analysis of the generalized theory is carried out with further physical applications in mind, and a numerical method that consistently approximates the energy of the system and its rate of change is presented. The method is thoroughly tested against analytical and numerical results on the classical Fisher-KPP equation, the Heaviside equation, and the generalized Fisher-KPP equation with logistic nonlinearity and Heaviside initial profile, obtaining as a result that our method is highly stable and accurate, even in the presence of discontinuities. As an application, we establish numerically that, under the presence of suitable initial conditions, there exists a threshold for the relaxation time with the property that solutions to the problems considered are nonnegative if and only if the relaxation time is below a critical value. An analytical prediction is provided for the Heaviside equation, against which we verify the validity of our computational code, and numerical approximations are provided for several generalized Fisher-KPP problems.

A positive finite-difference model in the computational simulation of complex biological film models

In this work, we design a linear, two-step, finite-difference method to approximate the solutions of a biological system that describes the interaction between a microbial colony and a surrounding substrate. The model is a system of four partial differential equations with nonlinear diffusion and reaction, and the colony is formed by an active portion, an inert component and the contribution of extracellular polymeric substances. In this work, we extend the computational approach proposed by Eberl and Demaret [A finite difference scheme for a degenerated diffusion equation arising in microbial ecology, Electr. J. Differ. Equ. 15 (2007) pp. 77–95], in order to design a numerical technique to approximate the solutions of a more complicated model proposed in the literature. As we will see in this work, this approach guarantees that positive and bounded initial solutions will evolve uniquely into positive and bounded, new approximations. We provide numerical simulations to evince the preservation of the positive character of solutions.