Particle tracking for fractional diffusion with two time scales

Abstract Previous work [Y. Zhang, M.M. Meerschaert, B. Baeumer, Particle tracking for time-fractional diffusion, Phys. Rev. E 78 (2008) 036705] showed how to solve time-fractional diffusion equations by particle tracking. This paper extends the method to the case where the order of the fractional time derivative is greater than one. A subordination approach treats the fractional time derivative as a random time change of the corresponding Cauchy problem, with a first derivative in time. One novel feature of the time-fractional case of order greater than one is the appearance of clustering in the operational time subordinator, which is non-Markovian. Solutions to the time-fractional equation are probability densities of the underlying stochastic process. The process models movement of individual particles. The evolution of an individual particle in both space and time is captured in a pair of stochastic differential equations, or Langevin equations. Monte Carlo simulation yields particle location, and the ensemble density approximates the solution to the variable coefficient time-fractional diffusion equation in one or several spatial dimensions. The particle tracking code is validated against inverse transform solutions in the simplest cases. Further applications solve model equations for fracture flow, and upscaling flow in complex heterogeneous porous media. These variable coefficient time-fractional partial differential equations in several dimensions are not amenable to solution by any alternative method, so that the grid-free particle tracking approach presented here is uniquely appropriate.

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