Qualitative Numerical Analysis of a Free-Boundary Diffusive Logistic Model

Abstract

A two-dimensional free-boundary diffusive logistic model with radial symmetry is considered. This model is used in various fields to describe the dynamics of spreading in different media: fire propagation, spreading of population or biological invasions. Due to the radial symmetry, the free boundary can be treated by a front-fixing approach resulting in a fixed-domain non-linear problem, which is solved by an explicit finite difference method. Qualitative numerical analysis establishes the stability, positivity and monotonicity conditions. Special attention is paid to the spreading–vanishing dichotomy and a numerical algorithm for the spreading–vanishing boundary is proposed. Theoretical statements are illustrated by numerical tests.

Keywords

• free-boundary problem
• diffusive logistic model
• radial symmetry
• spreading–vanishing dichotomy
• numerical analysis
• finite-difference method