Local Structure-Preserving Relaxation Method for Charged Systems on Unstructured Meshes

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Qiao, Zhonghua, Xu, Zhenli, Yin, Qian, Zhou, Shenggao
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2023
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author Qiao, Zhonghua
Xu, Zhenli
Yin, Qian
Zhou, Shenggao
author_facet Qiao, Zhonghua
Xu, Zhenli
Yin, Qian
Zhou, Shenggao
contents This work considers charged systems described by the modified Poisson--Nernst--Planck (PNP) equations, which incorporate ionic steric effects and the Born solvation energy for dielectric inhomogeneity. Solving the steady-state modified PNP equations poses numerical challenges due to the emergence of sharp boundary layers caused by small Debye lengths, particularly when local ionic concentrations reach saturation. To address this, we first reformulate the steady-state problem as a constraint optimization, where the ionic concentrations on unstructured Delaunay nodes are treated as fractional particles moving along edges between nodes. The electric fields are then updated to minimize the objective free energy while satisfying the discrete Gauss's law. We develop a local relaxation method on unstructured meshes that inherently respects the discrete Gauss's law, ensuring curl-free electric fields. Numerical analysis demonstrates that the optimal mass of the moving fractional particles guarantees the positivity of both ionic and solvent concentrations. Additionally, the free energy of the charged system consistently decreases during successive updates of ionic concentrations and electric fields. We conduct numerical tests to validate the expected numerical accuracy, positivity, free-energy dissipation, and robustness of our method in simulating charged systems with sharp boundary layers.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_05411
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Local Structure-Preserving Relaxation Method for Charged Systems on Unstructured Meshes
Qiao, Zhonghua
Xu, Zhenli
Yin, Qian
Zhou, Shenggao
Numerical Analysis
This work considers charged systems described by the modified Poisson--Nernst--Planck (PNP) equations, which incorporate ionic steric effects and the Born solvation energy for dielectric inhomogeneity. Solving the steady-state modified PNP equations poses numerical challenges due to the emergence of sharp boundary layers caused by small Debye lengths, particularly when local ionic concentrations reach saturation. To address this, we first reformulate the steady-state problem as a constraint optimization, where the ionic concentrations on unstructured Delaunay nodes are treated as fractional particles moving along edges between nodes. The electric fields are then updated to minimize the objective free energy while satisfying the discrete Gauss's law. We develop a local relaxation method on unstructured meshes that inherently respects the discrete Gauss's law, ensuring curl-free electric fields. Numerical analysis demonstrates that the optimal mass of the moving fractional particles guarantees the positivity of both ionic and solvent concentrations. Additionally, the free energy of the charged system consistently decreases during successive updates of ionic concentrations and electric fields. We conduct numerical tests to validate the expected numerical accuracy, positivity, free-energy dissipation, and robustness of our method in simulating charged systems with sharp boundary layers.
title Local Structure-Preserving Relaxation Method for Charged Systems on Unstructured Meshes
topic Numerical Analysis
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.05411