A finite analytic method for solving the 2-D time-dependent advection–diffusion equation with time-invariant coefficients

Abstract

Difficulty in solving the transient advection–diffusion equation (ADE) stems from the relationship between the advection derivatives and the time derivative. For a solution method to be viable, it must account for this relationship by being accurate in both space and time. This research presents a unique method for solving the time-dependent ADE that does not discretize the derivative terms but rather solves the equation analytically in the space–time domain. The method is computationally efficient and numerically accurate and addresses the common limitations of numerical dispersion and spurious oscillations that can be prevalent in other solution methods. The method is based on the improved finite analytic (IFA) solution method [Lowry TS, Li S-G. A characteristic based finite analytic method for solving the two-dimensional steady-state advection–diffusion equation. Water Resour Res 38 (7), 10.1029/2001WR000518] in space coupled with a Laplace transformation in time. In this way, the method has no Courant condition and maintains accuracy in space and time, performing well even at high Peclet numbers. The method is compared to a hybrid method of characteristics, a random walk particle tracking method, and an Eulerian–Lagrangian Localized Adjoint Method using various degrees of flow-field heterogeneity across multiple Peclet numbers. Results show the IFALT method to be computationally more efficient while producing similar or better accuracy than the other methods.