Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1212.3720

Asymptotic analysis of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation describing electrokinetics in porous media

Gregoire Allaire·Jean-Francois Dufreche·Andro Mikelic·Andrey Piatnitski
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We consider the Poisson-Boltzmann equation in a periodic cell, representative of a porous medium. It is a model for the electrostatic distribution of $N$ chemical species diluted in a liquid at rest, occupying the pore space with charged solid boundaries. We study the asymptotic behavior of its solution depending on a parameter $β$ which is the square of the ratio between a characteristic pore length and the Debye length. For small $β$ we identify the limit problem which is still a nonlinear Poisson equation involving only one species with maximal valence, opposite to the average of the given surface charge density. This result justifies the {\it Donnan effect}, observing that the ions for which the charge is the one of the solid phase are expelled from the pores. For large $β$ we prove that the solution behaves like a boundary layer near the pore walls and is constant far away in the bulk. Our analysis is valid for Neumann boundary conditions (namely for imposed surface charge densities) and establishes rigorously that solid interfaces are uncoupled from the bulk fluid, so that the simplified additive theories, such as the one of the popular Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey and Overbeek (DLVO) approach, can be used. We show that the asymptotic behavior is completely different in the case of Dirichlet boundary conditions (namely for imposed surface potential).

Explore related subjects

math.APmath-phmath.MP

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Gregoire Allaire, Jean-Francois Dufreche, Andro Mikelic, Andrey Piatnitski. 2012-12-15. Asymptotic analysis of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation describing electrokinetics in porous media. https://doi.org/10.1088/0951-7715%2F26%2F3%2F881

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

A linear test approach to global controllability of third- and fifth-order nonlinear dispersive equations

We investigate third- and fifth-order nonlinear dispersive equations of KdV type on the torus and establishes approximate controllability by a fixed four-dimensional control; rather than relying solely on the saturation machinery, the analysis exploits the finite-dimensional controllability of the inviscid Burgers equation linearized around a carefully constructed return trajectory, with the trajectory itself obtained from an observable family. This ``linear test" strategy, yields more information about the structure of the control than the standard approach. In particular, the constructed control is shown to depend continuously on the initial and target states, a property that is by no means automatic in nonlinear control problems, and to decompose as a bounded linear operator applied to the data plus a fixed remainder, with the operator part interestingly independent of the order of dispersion.

math.AP↗
arXiv2026

A conditional Lagrangian clock barrier at the $C^{1,\frac{1}{3}}$ threshold for axisymmetric Euler without swirl

We consider axisymmetric no-swirl solutions to the three-dimensional incompressible Euler equations, with initial velocity in $C^{1,α}\cap L^2$, where $α\in\left[\frac{1}{3},1\right)$. In a major breakthrough, Shkoller introduced a clock-and-driver framework that he used in order to prove finite-time type I blow-up below the $C^{1,\frac{1}{3}}$ threshold in this setting. Motivated by this, we define Lagrangian classes of coherent conditional solutions for which the same mechanism yields a supercritical-critical barrier to blow-up when $α\geq\frac{1}{3}$. When $α>\frac{1}{3}$, the aforementioned barrier is genuinely depleted, whereas at the critical endpoint $α=\frac{1}{3}$, we obtain an exponential bound preventing blow-up. In the general case, we formulate a matrix-clock criterion in terms of the smallest singular value of the deformation gradient and show that, under transverse cusp-tail, longitudinal, off-clock, Dini, and suitable geometric coherence hypotheses, this singular value cannot collapse in finite time. In particular, we also show that the class of such coherent solutions includes the smooth ones locally in time. In the on-axis case, the criterion reduces to the scalar clock inequality $\displaystyle \dot{J}(t)\gtrsim -B(t)J(t)-CJ(t)^{3α}$, which rules out Shkoller-type clock collapse for $α\geq\frac{1}{3}$. These results do not enlarge the known Lorentz-space global regularity classes. Rather, they in particular identify the supercritical Lagrangian obstruction dual to Shkoller's subcritical blow-up mechanism in the case $α>\frac{1}{3}$.

math.AP↗