In this paper we propose a time discretization of a system of two parabolic equations describing diffusion-driven atom rearrangement in crystalline matter. The equations express the balances of microforces and microenergy; the two phase fields are the order parameter and the chemical potential. The initial and boundary-value problem for the evolutionary system is known to be well posed. Convergence of the discrete scheme to the solution of the continuous problem is proved by a careful development of uniform estimates, by weak compactness and a suitable treatment of
nonlinearities. Moreover, for the difference of discrete
and continuous solutions we prove an error estimate of
order one with respect to the time step.
The present note deals with a nonstandard systems of differential equations describing a two-species phase segregation. This system naturally arises in the asymptotic analysis carried out recently by the same authors,
as the diffusion coefficient in the equation governing
the evolution of the order parameter tends to zero. In particular, an existence result has been proved for the limit system in a very general framework. On the contrary, uniqueness was shown by assuming a constant mobility coefficient. Here, we generalize this result and prove
a continuous dependence property in the case that the mobility coefficient suitably depends on the chemical potential.
We are concerned with a nonstandard phase field model of
Cahn-Hilliard type. The model, which was introduced by Podio-Guidugli (Ric. Mat. 2006), describes two-species phase segregation and consists of a system of two highly nonlinearly coupled PDEs. It has been recently investigated
by Colli, Gilardi, Podio-Guidugli, and Sprekels in a series of papers: see, in particular, SIAM J. Appl. Math. 2011,
and Boll. Unione Mat. Ital. 2012. In the latter contribution, the authors can treat the very general case in which the diffusivity coefficient of the parabolic PDE
is allowed to depend nonlinearly on both variables. In the same framework, this paper investigates the asymptotic limit of the solutions to the initial-boundary value problems as the diffusion coefficient sigma in the equation governing the evolution of the order parameter tends to zero. We prove that such a limit actually exists and solves the limit problem, which couples a nonlinear PDE of parabolic type with an ODE accounting for the phase dynamics. In the case of a constant diffusivity, we are able to show uniqueness and to improve the regularity of the solution.
This note is concerned with a nonlinear diffusion problem of phase-field type, consisting of a parabolic system of two partial differential equations, complemented by Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions and initial conditions. The system arises from a model of two-species phase segregation
on an atomic lattice [22]; it consists of the balance equations of microforces and microenergy; the two unknowns are the order parameter rho and the chemical potential mu. Some recent results obtained for this class of problems is reviewed and, in the case of a nonconstant and nonlinear atom mobility, uniqueness and continuous dependence on the initial data are shown with the help of a new line of
argumentation developed in [12].