Finite volume approach for fragmentation equation and its mathematical analysis

Abstract

This work is focused on developing a finite volume scheme for approximating a fragmentation equation. The mathematical analysis is discussed in detail by examining thoroughly the consistency and convergence of the numerical scheme. The idea of the proposed scheme is based on conserving the total mass and preserving the total number of particles in the system. The proposed scheme is free from the trait that the particles are concentrated at the representative of the cells. The verification of the scheme is done against the analytical solutions for several combinations of standard fragmentation kernel and selection functions. The numerical testing shows that the proposed scheme is highly accurate in predicting the number distribution function and various moments. The scheme has the tendency to capture the higher order moments even though no measure has been taken for their accuracy. It is also shown that the scheme is second-order convergent on both uniform and nonuniform grids. Experimental order of convergence is used to validate the theoretical observations of convergence.