Van Thinh Nguyen

Three-dimensional numerical model for soil vapor extraction

Mass transfer limitations impact the effectiveness of soil vapor extraction (SVE) and cause tailing. In order to identify the governing mass transfer processes, a three-dimensional SVE numerical model was developed. The developed model was based on Comsol Multiphysics a finite element method that incorporates multi-phase flow, multi-component transport and non-equilibrium transient mass transfer. Model calibration was done against experimental data from previously completed lab-scale reactor experiments. The developed model, 3D-SVE, nicely simulates laboratory findings and allows for changes in the important governing mass transfer relationships. The modeling results showed that a single averaged mass transfer value is a poor representation of the entire SVE operation, and that a transient mass transfer coefficient is required to fully represent SVE tailing. Calibration of the lab scale model showed that the most important mass transfer occurs between the NAPL and vapor phase.

On a Riesz–Feller space fractional backward diffusion problem with a nonlinear source

Abstract In this paper, a backward diffusion problem for a space-fractional diffusion equation with a nonlinear source in a strip is investigated. This problem is obtained from the classical diffusion equation by replacing the second-order space derivative with a Riesz–Feller derivative of order α ∈ ( 0 , 2 ] . A nonlinear problem is severely ill-posed, therefore we propose two new modified regularization solutions to solve it. We further show that the approximated problems are well-posed and their solutions converge if the original problem has a classical solution. In addition, the convergence estimates are presented under a priori bounded assumption of the exact solution. For estimating the error of the proposed method, a numerical example has been implemented.

On a final value problem for the time-fractional diffusion equation with inhomogeneous source

Abstract In this paper, we consider an inverse problem for the time-fractional diffusion equation with inhomogeneous source to determine an initial data from the observation data provided at a later time. In general, this problem is ill-posed, therefore we construct a regularizing solution using the quasi-boundary value method. We also proposed both parameter choice rule methods, the a-priori and the a-posteriori methods, to estimate the convergence rate of the regularized methods. In addition, the proposed regularized methods have been verified by numerical experiments, and a comparison of the convergence rate between the a-priori and the a-posteriori choice rule methods is also given.

On an inverse problem in the parabolic equation arising from groundwater pollution problem

In this paper, we consider an inverse problem to determine a heat source in a parabolic equation, where the data are obtained at a certain time. In general, this problem is ill-posed, therefore the Tikhonov regularization method is proposed to solve the problem. In the theoretical results, a priori error estimate between the exact solution and its regularized solutions is obtained. We also propose both methods, a priori and a posteriori parameter choice rules. In addition, the proposed methods have been verified by numerical experiments to estimate the errors between the regularized solutions and exact solutions. Eventually, from the numerical results it shows that the a posteriori parameter choice rule method gives a better the convergence speed in comparison with the a priori parameter choice rule method in some specific applications.