A singularly perturbed convection-diffusion parabolic problem with incompatible boundary/initial data

Abstract

A singularly perturbed parabolic problem of convection-diffusion type with incompatible inflow boundary and initial conditions is examined. In the case of constant coefficients, a set of singular functions are identified which match certain incompatibilities in the data and also satisfy the associated homogeneous differential equation. When the convective coefficient only depends on the time variable and the initial/boundary data is discontinuous, then a mixed analytical/numerical approach is taken. In the case of variable coefficients and the zero level of compatibility being satisfied (i.e. continuous boundary/initial data), a numerical method is constructed whose order of convergence is shown to depend on the next level of compatibility being satisfied by the data. Numerical results are presented to support the theoretical error bounds established for both of the approaches examined in the paper.