Diffusion in arrays of obstacles: beyond homogenisation

Duration: 54 mins 8 secs

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Description:	Alexandra Tzella (University of Birmingham) 9 March 2022 – 13:30 to 14:30


Created:	2022-03-14 13:52
Collection:	Mathematical aspects of turbulence: where do we stand?
Publisher:	Isaac Newton Institute
Copyright:	Alexandra Tzella
Language:	eng (English)


Abstract:	We revisit the classical problem of diffusion of a scalar (or heat) released in a two-dimensional medium with an embedded periodic array of impermeable obstacles such as perforations. Homogenisation theory provides a coarse-grained description of the scalar at large times and predicts that it diffuses with a certain effective diffusivity, so the concentration is approximately Gaussian. We improve on this by developing a large-deviation approximation which also captures the non-Gaussian tails of the con- centration through a rate function obtained by solving a family of eigenvalue problems. We focus on cylindrical obstacles and on the dense limit, when the obstacles occupy a large area fraction and non-Gaussianity is most marked. We derive an asymptotic approximation for the rate function in this limit, valid uniformly over a wide range of distances. We use finite-element implementations to solve the eigenvalue problems yielding the rate function for arbitrary obstacle area fractions and an elliptic boundary-value problem arising in the asymptotics calculation. Comparison between numerical results and asymptotic predictions confirm the validity of the latter.

Abstract:

We revisit the classical problem of diffusion of a scalar (or heat) released in a two-dimensional medium with an embedded periodic array of impermeable obstacles such as perforations. Homogenisation theory provides a coarse-grained description of the scalar at large times and predicts that it diffuses with a certain effective diffusivity, so the concentration is approximately Gaussian. We improve on this by developing a large-deviation approximation which also captures the non-Gaussian tails of the con- centration through a rate function obtained by solving a family of eigenvalue problems. We focus on cylindrical obstacles and on the dense limit, when the obstacles occupy a large area fraction and non-Gaussianity is most marked. We derive an asymptotic approximation for the rate function in this limit, valid uniformly over a wide range of distances. We use finite-element implementations to solve the eigenvalue problems yielding the rate function for arbitrary obstacle area fractions and an elliptic boundary-value problem arising in the asymptotics calculation. Comparison between numerical results and asymptotic predictions confirm the validity of the latter.

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