A reaction-diffusion problem with a Caputo time derivative of order α ∈ (0, 1) is considered. The solution of such a problem is shown in general to have a weak singularity near the initial time t = 0, and sharp pointwise bounds on certain derivatives of this solution are derived. A new analysis of a standard finite difference method for the problem is given, taking into account this initial singularity. This analysis encompasses both uniform meshes and meshes that are graded in time, and includes new stability and consistency bounds. The final convergence result shows clearly how the regularity of the solution and the grading of the mesh affect the order of convergence of the difference scheme, so one can choose an optimal mesh grading. Numerical results are presented that confirm the sharpness of the error analysis.
A singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problem, with a discontinuous convection coefficient and a singular perturbation parameter ε, is examined. Due to the discontinuity an interior layer appears in the solution. A finite difference method is constructed for solving this problem, which generates ε-uniformly convergent numerical approximations to the solution. The method uses a piecewise uniform mesh, which is fitted to the interior layer, and the standard upwind finite difference operator on this mesh. The main theoretical result is the ε-uniform convergence in the global maximum norm of the approximations generated by this finite difference method. Numerical results are presented, which are in agreement with the theoretical results.
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