Equation-free, multiscale computation for unsteady random diffusion

Abstract

We present an ``equation-free'' multiscale approach to the simulation of unsteady diffusion in a random medium. The diffusivity of the medium is modeled as a random field with short correlation length, and the governing equations are cast in the form of stochastic differential equations. A detailed fine-scale computation of such a problem requires discretization and solution of a large system of equations, and can be prohibitively time-consuming. To circumvent this difficulty, we propose an equation-free approach, where the fine-scale computation is conducted only for a (small) fraction of the overall time. The evolution of a set of appropriately defined coarse-grained variables (observables) is evaluated during the fine-scale computation, and ``projective integration'' is used to accelerate the integration. The choice of these coarse variables is an important part of the approach: they are the coefficients of pointwise polynomial expansions of the random solutions. Such a choice of coarse variables allows us to reconstruct representative ensembles of fine-scale solutions with "correct" correlation structures, which is a key to algorithm efficiency. Numerical examples demonstrating accuracy and efficiency of the approach are presented.