Homogenization theory for a replenishing passive scalar field (Q964802)

The authors describe an homogenization result for an evolution problem involving a source term which can have a replenishing structure. They start from the passive advection-diffusion equation \(\partial_t\theta+\mathbf{v}(\mathbf{x},t)\cdot \nabla\theta= \text{Pe}^{-1}\Delta \theta +\sigma s(\mathbf{x},t)\) in \(\mathbb R^d\times (0,\infty)\) where Pe is Peclet's number, \(\sigma\) is an one-dimensional parameter and \(\mathbf{v}\) is a flow which is supposed to be incompressible and prescribed by a kinematic model. The solution of this problem starts from an initial data \(\theta_{in}\) at \(t=0\). \(s\) is a source term which is taken as \(s=\delta^ds^{(\delta )}(\mathbf{x},t;\delta \mathbf{x},\eta t)\) where \(\delta ^{-1}\) is a large length scale and \(\eta \) is a time scale. The flow \(\mathbf{v}\) and the source term \( s^{(\delta)}\) are supposed to be periodic with respect to the small-scale variables. Introducing \(\theta^{(\delta)}(x,t)= \delta^d\theta (\mathbf{x}/\delta;t/\delta^2)\), the authors obtain the rescaled equation \[ \partial_t\theta^{(\delta)}+ \delta^{-1}\mathbf{v}(\mathbf{x}/\delta;t/\delta^{2})\cdot \nabla \theta^{(\delta)}= \text{Pe}^{-1}\Delta\theta^{(\delta)}+ \sigma\delta^{-2}s^{(\delta)}(\mathbf{x}/\delta;t/\delta^2;\mathbf{x};\eta t/\delta^2). \] The authors first describe the case where \(\eta =\delta^2\). They present the homogenized equation which involves a source term which takes different values according to the value of the small-scale mean. They then briefly discuss the situations where \(\eta\ll \delta^2\) or \(\eta\gg \delta^2\). The paper ends with the study of the homogenization process in the case of a replenishing source term. They here present the asymptotic expansion of the solution, again distinguishing between the cases \(\eta=\delta^2\), \(\eta\ll \delta^2\) or \(\eta\gg \delta^2\).