Research progress on isotopic fractionation in the process of shale gas/coalbed methane migration

The research progress of isotopic fractionation in the process of shale gas/coalbed methane migration has been reviewed from three aspects: characteristics and influencing factors, mechanism and quantitative characterization model, and geological application. It is found that the isotopic fractionation during the complete production of shale gas/coalbed methane shows a four-stage characteristic of “stable-lighter-heavier-lighter again”, which is related to the complex gas migration modes in the pores of shale/coal. The gas migration mechanisms in shale/coal include seepage, diffusion, and adsorption/desorption. Among them, seepage driven by pressure difference does not induce isotopic fractionation, while diffusion and adsorption/desorption lead to significant isotope fractionation. The existing characterization models of isotopic fractionation include diffusion fractionation model, diffusion-adsorption/desorption coupled model, and multi-scale and multi-mechanism coupled model. Results of model calculations show that the isotopic fractionation during natural gas migration is mainly controlled by pore structure, adsorption capacity, and initial/boundary conditions of the reservoir rock. So far, the isotope fractionation model has been successfully used to evaluate critical parameters, such as gas-in-place content and ratio of adsorbed/free gas in shale/coal etc. Furthermore, it has shown promising application potential in production status identification and decline trend prediction of gas well. Future research should focus on:(1) the co-evolution of carbon and hydrogen isotopes of different components during natural gas migration,(2) the characterization of isotopic fractionation during the whole process of gas generation-expulsion-migration-accumulation-dispersion, and(3) quantitative characterization of isotopic fractionation during natural gas migration in complex pore-fracture systems and its application.

A STRONG POSITIVITY PROPERTY AND A RELATED INVERSE SOURCE PROBLEM FOR MULTI-TERM TIME-FRACTIONAL DIFFUSION EQUATIONS

In this article,we consider the diffusion equation with multi-term time-fractional derivatives.We first derive,by a subordination principle for the solution,that the solution is positive when the initial value is non-negative.As an application,we prove the uniqueness of solution to an inverse problem of determination of the temporally varying source term by integral type information in a subdomain.Finally,several numerical experiments are presented to show the accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm.

带分数阶Robin边界条件的时间-空间分数阶扩散方程的有限差分方法

In this paper, an efficient numerical method is proposed to solve the Caputo-Riesz fractional diffusion equation with fractional Robin boundary conditions. We approximate the Riesz space fractional derivatives using the fractional central difference scheme with second-order accurate. A priori estimation of the solution of the numerical scheme is given, and the stability and convergence of the numerical scheme are analyzed.Finally, a numerical example is used to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the numerical method.

Global Well-Posedness of the Fractional Tropical Climate Model

In this paper, we consider the Cauchy problem of 3-dimensional tropical climate model. This model reflects the interaction and coupling among the barotropic mode u, the first baroclinic mode v of the velocity and the temperature θ. The systems with fractional dissipation studied here may arise in the modeling of geophysical circumstances. Mathematically these systems allow simultaneous examination of a family of systems with various levels of regularization. The aim here is the global strong solution with the least dissipation. By energy estimate and delicate analysis, we prove the existence of global solution under three different cases: first, with the help of damping terms, the global strong solution of the system with Λ2au, Λ2βv and Λ2γ θ for;and second, the global strong solution of the system for with damping terms;finally, the global strong solution of the system for without any damping terms, which improve the known existence theory for this system.

A LOCAL DISCONTINUOUS GALERKIN METHOD FOR TIME-FRACTIONAL DIFFUSION EQUATIONS

In this paper,a local discontinuous Galerkin(LDG)scheme for the time-fractional diffusion equation is proposed and analyzed.The Caputo time-fractional derivative(of orderα,with 0<α<1)is approximated by a finite difference method with an accuracy of order3-α,and the space discretization is based on the LDG method.For the finite difference method,we summarize and supplement some previous work by others,and apply it to the analysis of the convergence and stability of the proposed scheme.The optimal error estimate is obtained in the L2norm,indicating that the scheme has temporal(3-α)th-order accuracy and spatial(k+1)th-order accuracy,where k denotes the highest degree of a piecewise polynomial in discontinuous finite element space.The numerical results are also provided to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the considered scheme.

Finite Difference Schemes for Time-Space Fractional Diffusion Equations in One-and Two-Dimensions

In this paper,finite difference schemes for solving time-space fractional diffusion equations in one dimension and two dimensions are proposed.The temporal derivative is in the Caputo-Hadamard sense for both cases.The spatial derivative for the one-dimensional equation is of Riesz definition and the two-dimensional spatial derivative is given by the fractional Laplacian.The schemes are proved to be unconditionally stable and convergent.The numerical results are in line with the theoretical analysis.

THE QUASI-BOUNDARY VALUE METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING THE INITIAL VALUE OF THE SPACE-TIME FRACTIONAL DIFFUSION EQUATION

In this article,we consider to solve the inverse initial value problem for an inhomogeneous space-time fractional diffusion equation.This problem is ill-posed and the quasi-boundary value method is proposed to deal with this inverse problem and obtain the series expression of the regularized solution for the inverse initial value problem.We prove the error estimates between the regularization solution and the exact solution by using an a priori regularization parameter and an a posteriori regularization parameter choice rule.Some numerical results in one-dimensional case and two-dimensional case show that our method is efficient and stable.

Exact Solution of Fractional Diffusion Model with Source Term used in Study of Concentration of Fission Product in Uranium Dioxide Particle

The exact solution of fractional diffusion model with a location-independent source term used in the study of the concentration of fission product in spherical uranium dioxide （U02） particle is built. The adsorption effect of the fission product on the surface of the U02 particle and the delayed decay effect are also considered. The solution is given in terms of Mittag-Leffler function with finite Hankel integral transformation and Laplace transformation. At last, the reduced forms of the solution under some special physical conditions, which is used in nuclear engineering, are obtained and corresponding remarks are given to provide significant exact results to the concentration analysis of nuclear fission products in nuclear reactor.

A Numerical Algorithm Based on Quadratic Finite Element for Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Time Fractional Thermal Diffusion Model

In this article,a high-order scheme,which is formulated by combining the quadratic finite element method in space with a second-order time discrete scheme,is developed for looking for the numerical solution of a two-dimensional nonlinear time fractional thermal diffusion model.The time Caputo fractional derivative is approximated by using the L2-1formula,the first-order derivative and nonlinear term are discretized by some second-order approximation formulas,and the quadratic finite element is used to approximate the spatial direction.The error accuracy O(h3+
t2)is obtained,which is verified by the numerical results.

Analysis of an Implicit Finite Difference Scheme for Time Fractional Diffusion Equation

Time fractional diffusion equation is usually used to describe the problems involving non-Markovian random walks. This kind of equation is obtained from the standard diffusion equation by replacing the first-order time derivative with a fractional derivative of order α∈(0, 1). In this paper, an implicit finite difference scheme for solving the time fractional diffusion equation with source term is presented and analyzed, where the fractional derivative is described in the Caputo sense. Stability and convergence of this scheme are rigorously established by a Fourier analysis. And using numerical experiments illustrates the accuracy and effectiveness of the scheme mentioned in this paper.

A Fractional Drift Diffusion Model for Organic Semiconductor Devices

Because charge carriers of many organic semiconductors(OSCs)exhibit fractional drift diffusion(Fr-DD)transport properties,the need to develop a Fr-DD model solver becomes more apparent.However,the current research on solving the governing equations of the Fr-DD model is practically nonexistent.In this paper,an iterative solver with high precision is developed to solve both the transient and steady-state Fr-DD model for organic semiconductor devices.The Fr-DD model is composed of two fractionalorder carriers(i.e.,electrons and holes)continuity equations coupled with Poisson’s equation.By treating the current density as constants within each pair of consecutive grid nodes,a linear Caputo’s fractional-order ordinary differential equation(FrODE)can be produced,and its analytic solution gives an approximation to the carrier concentration.The convergence of the solver is guaranteed by implementing a successive over-relaxation(SOR)mechanism on each loop of Gummel’s iteration.Based on our derivations,it can be shown that the Scharfetter–Gummel discretization method is essentially a special case of our scheme.In addition,the consistency and convergence of the two core algorithms are proved,with three numerical examples designed to demonstrate the accuracy and computational performance of this solver.Finally,we validate the Fr-DD model for a steady-state organic field effect transistor(OFET)by fitting the simulated transconductance and output curves to the experimental data.

Numerical Algorithm for the Time-Caputo and Space-Riesz Fractional Diffusion Equation

In this paper,we develop a novel fi nite-diff erence scheme for the time-Caputo and space-Riesz fractional diff usion equation with convergence order O(τ^2−α+h^2).The stability and convergence of the scheme are analyzed by mathematical induction.Moreover,some numerical results are provided to verify the eff ectiveness of the developed diff erence scheme.

Computable extensions of generalized fractional kinetic equations in astrophysics

Fractional calculus and special functions have contributed a lot to mathematical physics and its various branches. The great use of mathematical physics in distinguished astrophysical problems has attracted astronomers and physicists to pay more attention to available mathematical tools that can be widely used in solving several problems of astrophysics/physics. In view of the great importance and usefulness of kinetic equations in certain astrophysical problems, the authors derive a generalized fractional kinetic equation involving the Lorenzo-Hartley function, a generalized function for fractional calculus. The fractional kinetic equation discussed here can be used to investigate a wide class of known （and possibly also new） fractional kinetic equations, hitherto scattered in the literature. A compact and easily computable solution is established in terms of the Lorenzo-Hartley function. Special cases, involving the generalized Mittag-Leffler function and the R-function, are considered. The obtained results imply the known results more precisely.

Analysis of anomalous transport based on radial fractional diffusion equation

Anomalous transport in magnetically confined plasmas is investigated by radial fractional transport equations.It is shown that for fractional transport models,hollow density profiles are formed and uphill transports can be observed regardless of whether the fractional diffusion coefficients(FDCs)are radially dependent or not.When a radially dependent FDC<D_(α)(r)1 is imposed,compared with the case under=D_(α)(r)1.0,it is observed that the position of the peak of the density profile is closer to the core.Further,it is found that when FDCs at the positions of source injections increase,the peak values of density profiles decrease.The non-local effect becomes significant as the order of fractional derivative a 1 and causes the uphill transport.However,as a 2,the fractional diffusion model returns to the standard model governed by Fick’s law.

Non-probabilistic solutions of imprecisely defined fractional-order diffusion equations

The fractional diffusion equation is one of the most important partial differential equations（PDEs） to model problems in mathematical physics. These PDEs are more practical when those are combined with uncertainties. Accordingly, this paper investigates the numerical solution of a non-probabilistic viz. fuzzy fractional-order diffusion equation subjected to various external forces. A fuzzy diffusion equation having fractional order 0 〈 α≤ 1 with fuzzy initial condition is taken into consideration. Fuzziness appearing in the initial conditions is modelled through convex normalized triangular and Gaussian fuzzy numbers. A new computational technique is proposed based on double parametric form of fuzzy numbers to handle the fuzzy fractional diffusion equation. Using the single parametric form of fuzzy numbers, the original fuzzy diffusion equation is converted first into an interval-based fuzzy differential equation. Next, this equation is transformed into crisp form by using the proposed double parametric form of fuzzy numbers. Finally, the same is solved by Adomian decomposition method（ADM） symbolically to obtain the uncertain bounds of the solution. Computed results are depicted in terms of plots. Results obtained by the proposed method are compared with the existing results in special cases.

Space-Fractional Diffusion with Variable Order and Diffusivity:Discretization and Direct Solution Strategies

We consider the multidimensional space-fractional diffusion equations with spatially varying diffusivity and fractional order.Significant computational challenges are encoun-tered when solving these equations due to the kernel singularity in the fractional integral operator and the resulting dense discretized operators,which quickly become prohibitively expensive to handle because of their memory and arithmetic complexities.In this work,we present a singularity-aware discretization scheme that regularizes the singular integrals through a singularity subtraction technique adapted to the spatial variability of diffusiv-ity and fractional order.This regularization strategy is conveniently formulated as a sparse matrix correction that is added to the dense operator,and is applicable to different formula-tions of fractional diffusion equations.We also present a block low rank representation to handle the dense matrix representations,by exploiting the ability to approximate blocks of the resulting formally dense matrix by low rank factorizations.A Cholesky factorization solver operates directly on this representation using the low rank blocks as its atomic com-putational tiles,and achieves high performance on multicore hardware.Numerical results show that the singularity treatment is robust,substantially reduces discretization errors,and attains the first-order convergence rate allowed by the regularity of the solutions.They also show that considerable savings are obtained in storage(O(N^(1.5)))and computational cost(O(N^(2)))compared to dense factorizations.This translates to orders-of-magnitude savings in memory and time on multidimensional problems,and shows that the proposed methods offer practical tools for tackling large nonlocal fractional diffusion simulations.

A Class of Preconditioners Based on Positive-Definite Operator Splitting Iteration Methods for Variable-Coefficient Space-Fractional Diffusion Equations

After discretization by the finite volume method,the numerical solution of fractional diffusion equations leads to a linear system with the Toeplitz-like structure.The theoretical analysis gives sufficient conditions to guarantee the positive-definite property of the discretized matrix.Moreover,we develop a class of positive-definite operator splitting iteration methods for the numerical solution of fractional diffusion equations,which is unconditionally convergent for any positive constant.Meanwhile,the iteration methods introduce a new preconditioner for Krylov subspace methods.Numerical experiments verify the convergence of the positive-definite operator splitting iteration methods and show the efficiency of the proposed preconditioner,compared with the existing approaches.

An Indirect Finite Element Method for Variable-Coefficient Space-Fractional Diffusion Equations and Its Optimal-Order Error Estimates

We study an indirect finite element approximation for two-sided space-fractional diffusion equations in one space dimension.By the representation formula of the solutions u(x)to the proposed variable coefficient models in terms of v(x),the solutions to the constant coefficient analogues,we apply finite element methods for the constant coefficient fractional diffusion equations to solve for the approximations vh(x)to v(x)and then obtain the approximations uh(x)of u(x)by plugging vh(x)into the representation of u(x).Optimal-order convergence estimates of u(x)−uh(x)are proved in both L2 and Hα∕2 norms.Several numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the sharpness of the derived error estimates.

A Note on Numerical Algorithm for the Time-Caputo and Space-Riesz Fractional Diffusion Equation

Recently,Zhang and Ding developed a novel finite difference scheme for the time-Caputo and space-Riesz fractional diffusion equation with the convergence order 0(ι^(2-a)+h^(2))in Zhang and Ding(Commun.Appl.Math.Comput.2(1):57-72,2020).Unfortunately,they only gave the stability and convergence results for a∈(0,1)andβ∈[7/8+^(3)√621+48√87+19/8^(3)√621+48√87,2]In this paper,using a new analysis method,we find that the original difference scheme is unconditionally stable and convergent with orderΟ(ι^(2-a)+h^(2))for all a∈(0,1)andβ∈(1,2].Finally,some numerical examples are given to verify the correctness of the results.

Local Discontinuous Galerkin Methods with Novel Basis for Fractional Diffusion Equations with Non-smooth Solutions

In this paper,we develop novel local discontinuous Galerkin(LDG)methods for fractional diffusion equations with non-smooth solutions.We consider such problems,for which the solutions are not smooth at boundary,and therefore the traditional LDG methods with piecewise polynomial solutions suffer accuracy degeneracy.The novel LDG methods utilize a solution information enriched basis,simulate the problem on a paired special mesh,and achieve optimal order of accuracy.We analyze the L2 stability and optimal error estimate in L2-norm.Finally,numerical examples are presented for validating the theoretical conclusions.