Electro-Neutral Models for Dynamic Poisson-Nernst-Planck System

Abstract

The Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) system is a standard model for describing ion transport. In many applications, e.g., ions in biological tissues, the presence of thin boundary layers poses both modelling and computational challenges. In this paper, we derive simplified electro-neutral (EN) models where the thin boundary layers are replaced by effective boundary conditions. There are two major advantages of EN models. First of all, it is much cheaper to solve them numerically. Secondly, EN models are easier to deal with compared with the original PNP, therefore it is also easier to derive macroscopic models for cellular structures using EN models. Even though the approach is applicable to higher dimensional cases, this paper mainly focuses on the one-dimensional system, including the general multi-ion case. Using systematic asymptotic analysis, we derive a variety of effective boundary conditions directly applicable to EN system for the bulk region. This EN system can be solved directly and efficiently without computing the solution in the boundary layer. The derivation is based on matched asymptotics, and the key idea is to bring back higher order contributions into effective boundary conditions. For Dirichlet boundary conditions, the higher order terms can be neglected and classical results (continuity of electrochemical potential) are recovered. For flux boundary conditions, however, neglecting higher contribution leads to physically incorrect solutions since they account for accumulation of ions in boundary layer. The validity of our EN model is verified by several examples and numerical computation. In particular, our EN model is much more efficient than the original PNP model when applied to the computation of membrane potential.