Diffusion, a fundamental phenomenon in nature, operates on both microscopic and macroscopic scales. At the microscopic level, it manifests itself as a stochastic process, while at the macroscopic level it represents a uniform drift toward equilibrium. The Fokker-Planck equation is widely used to model diffusion phenomena in various disciplines, including physics, chemistry, biology, and others. The classical Ficks law cannot correctly represent the movement of species through inhomogeneous materials, such as porous media. This phenomenon is known as non-Fickian or anomalous diffusion and presents behavior that is difficult to analyze and require computationally intensive simulations. To address this, recent studies have explored modeling anomalous diffusion using fractional derivatives in time or space. Fractional calculus, a branch of classical calculus, provides a framework for handling integrals and derivatives of arbitrary order. Its application has proven to be particularly effective in systems that exhibit hysteresis, allowing the computation of associated memory effects. One example is the modeling of anomalous diffusion in polymeric coatings used to protect flexible pipelines in subsea oil exploration. Under such adverse conditions, extreme depths and temperatures, the properties of the polymer change over time, affecting the ingress of corrosive ions into the metal structure. It left unchecked, this threatens operational safety and environmental integrity. In this work, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is applied to anomalous diffusion described by Fractional Partial Derivative Equations (FPDEs), seeking to predict these intricate transport dynamics.
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