Variational analysis of the natural decay rates and eigenmodes of cavity-enclosed diffusive fields

AT de Hoop, MD Prange

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionProfessional

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A variational approach to the analysis of the natural decay rates and eigenmodes of cavity-enclosed diffusive fields in general anisotropic and heterogeneous materials is presented. In the bulk material, diffusivity and volume relaxivity are accounted for. The interaction of the cavity medium with the embedding materials is modeled via a surface relaxivity on the boundary surface. The pertaining eigenmodes are proven to be orthogonal and to form a complete expansion of an initially excited diffusive field. In view of the variational approach a finite-element type of computation presents itself as the natural tool for numerics. The resulting implementation on a simplical mesh allows for the modeling of cavaties of arbitrary shape. To investigate the feasability of using the approach in the inverse problem of reconstructing the shape and size of cavities form measured values of the natural decay rates of the eigenmodes, we carry out a number of numerical experiments on the forward problem. They demonstrate the method to be simple and robust, both in 2D and 3D complex geometries. For a benchmark problem with a known analytic solution, error estimates are presented. Applications are found in, for example, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of subsurface rock pore geometry, biological cell structure and the analysis of neurological defects in medical diagnostics.
    Original languageUndefined/Unknown
    Title of host publicationUnknown
    Place of PublicationCambridge
    PublisherIOP Publishing
    Pages12463-12477
    Number of pages15
    ISBN (Print)1751-8121
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2007

    Publication series

    Name
    PublisherIOP publishin
    NameJournal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
    Volume40
    ISSN (Print)1751-8113

    Keywords

    • other publications
    • Vakpubl., Overig wet. > 3 pag

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