Implicit–explicit time discretization coupled with finite element methods for delayed predator–prey competition reaction–diffusion system

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to develop the two-step implicit–explicit(IMEX) time discretization coupled with finite element methods for solving delayed predator–prey competition reaction–diffusion system. Finite element methods are used to discretize the space variables, both IMEX two-step one-leg methods and IMEX linear two-step methods are considered in time discretization, where the nonlinear reaction part is discretized explicitly and the diffusion part is discretized implicitly. The L2-norm error estimates with handling the breaking points are derived. These methods only require solving two independent linear systems with the same coefficient matrix at different time, and avoid solving large-scale systems of nonlinear algebraic equations, thus the resulting schemes are efficient. Some numerical experiments are presented to confirm the theoretical results.