Moving iso-contour method for solving partial differential equations

Abstract

The numerical solution of partial differential equations is often performed on a numerical grid, where the grid points are used for estimating the partial derivatives. The grid can be fully static as in Eulerian type of solution method, or the grid points can move during the solution, which is the case in Lagrangian type of method. In the current article, a numerical solution method is presented, where the grid points are located on iso-contours of the two-dimensional field. The method calculates the local movement of the iso-contours according to an evolution equation described by the PDE, and the solution proceeds by moving the grid points towards the calculated direction. Additional stability is obtained by setting the grid points to move along the iso-contour line. To exemplify the application of the method, numerical examples are calculated for the two-dimensional diffusion equation.