Xiangcheng Zheng

Xiangcheng Zheng, V. J. Ervin, Hong Wang

In this article we consider the approximation of a variable coefficient (two-sided) fractional diffusion equation (FDE), having unknown $u$. By introducing an intermediate unknown, $q$, the variable coefficient FDE is rewritten as a lower order, constant coefficient FDE. A spectral approximation scheme, using Jacobi polynomials, is presented for the approximation of $q$, $q_{N}$. The approximate solution to $u$, $u_{N}$, is obtained by post processing $q_{N}$. An a priori error analysis is given for $(q \, - \, q_{N})$ and $(u \, - \, u_{N})$. Two numerical experiments are presented whose results demonstrate the sharpness of the derived error estimates.

Xiangcheng Zheng, V. J. Ervin, Hong Wang

In this article a two-sided variable coefficient fractional diffusion equation (FDE) is investigated, where the variable coefficient occurs outside of the fractional integral operator. Under a suitable transformation the variable coefficient equation is transformed to a constant coefficient equation. Then, using the spectral decomposition approach with Jacobi polynomials, we proved the wellposedness of the model and the regularity of its solution. A spectral approximation scheme is proposed and the accuracy of its approximation studied. Two numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the derived error estimates.

Xiangcheng Zheng, V. J. Ervin, Hong Wang

In this article we study the numerical approximation of a variable coefficient fractional diffusion equation. Using a change of variable, the variable coefficient fractional diffusion equation is transformed into a constant coefficient fractional diffusion equation of the same order. The transformed equation retains the desirable stability property of being an elliptic equation. A spectral approximation scheme is proposed and analyzed for the transformed equation, with error estimates for the approximated solution derived. An approximation to the unknown of the variable coefficient fractional diffusion equation is then obtained by post processing the computed approximation to the transformed equation. Error estimates are also presented for the approximation to the unknown of the variable coefficient equation with both smooth and non-smooth diffusivity coefficient and right-hand side. Three numerical experiments are given whose convergence results are in strong agreement with the theoretically derived estimates.

Huan Liu, Hong Wang, Xiangcheng Zheng

The fractional advection-dispersion equation (FADE) has attracted increased attention from researchers as it provides an accurate description for challenging phenomenas with long-range time memory and spatial interactions, such as the anomalous diffusion behavior in the solute transport in porous media. Practically, a full characterization of the model parameters, such as the fluid velocity, dispersion coefficient and the order of the fractional derivative, often implies a huge amount of experiments and measurements and thus are hard to be determined. In this paper, we employ the framework of feedforward deep neural networks (DNNs) to develop an efficient data-driven deep learning algorithm for inferring the aforementioned parameters of the FADE, such as the time-dependent space-fractional advection-dispersion equation (sFADE) and the variable-order fractional mobile/immobile equation (VoFMIE), in which the feedforward DNNs are trained to minimize the mean square error loss function formulated by means of the finite difference approximations of sFADE and VoFMIE, respectively. Several numerical experiments, in which we discover the model parameters by the feedforward DNNs for both the synthetic and field data, are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed data-driven deep learning algorithm.

Xiangcheng Zheng

Variable-exponent fractional models attract increasing attentions in various applications, while the rigorous analysis is far from well developed. This work provides general tools to address these models. Specifically, we first develop a convolution method to study the well-posedness, regularity, an inverse problem and numerical approximation for the sundiffusion of variable exponent. For models such as the variable-exponent two-sided space-fractional boundary value problem (including the variable-exponent fractional Laplacian equation as a special case) and the distributed variable-exponent model, for which the convolution method does not apply, we develop a perturbation method to prove their well-posedness. The relation between the convolution method and the perturbation method is discussed, and we further apply the latter to prove the well-posedness of the variable-exponent Abel integral equation and discuss the constraint on the data under different initial values of variable exponent.

Xiangcheng Zheng, Fanhai Zeng, Hong Wang

We study a fully discrete finite element method for variable-order time-fractional diffusion equations with a time-dependent variable order. Optimal convergence estimates are proved with the first-order accuracy in time (and second order accuracy in space) under the uniform or graded temporal mesh without full regularity assumptions of the solutions. Numerical experiments are presented to substantiate the analysis.