This authoritative test introduces the basic aspects of diffusion phenomena and their methods of solution through physical examples. It emphasizes modeling and methodology, bridging the gap between physico chemical statements of certain kinetic processes and their reduction to diffusion problems. Author Richard Ghez draws upon his experience in the areas of metallurgy and semiconductor technology to present physically significant examples that will prove of interest to a wide range of scientists — physicists, chemists, biologists, and applied mathematicians. Prerequisites include a rigorous year of calculus and a semester of thermodynamics. The opening chapter on the diffusion equation is succeeded by chapters on steady-state examples, diffusion under external forces, and simple time-dependent examples. An introduction to similarity is followed by explorations of surface rate limitations and segregation, a user's guide to the Laplace transform, and further time-dependent examples.

Diffusion and growth phenomena abound in the real world surrounding us. Someexamples: growth of the world's population, growth rates of humans, public interest in news events, growth and decline of central city populations, pollution of rivers, adoption of agricultural innovations, and spreading of epidemics and migration of insects. These and numerous other phenomena are illustrations of typical growth and diffusion problems confronted in many branches of the physical, biological and social sciences as well as in various areas of agriculture, business, education, engineering medicine and public health. The book presents a large number of mathematical models to provide frameworks forthe analysis and display of many of these. The models developed and utilizedcommence with relatively simple exponential, logistic and normal distribution functions. Considerable attention is given to time dependent growth coefficients and carrying capacities. The topics of discrete and distributed time delays, spatial-temporal diffusion and diffusion with reaction are examined. Throughout the book there are a great many numerical examples. In addition and most importantly, there are more than 50 in-depth "illustrations" of the application of a particular framework ormodel based on real world problems. These examples provide the reader with an appreciation of the intrinsic nature of the phenomena involved. They address mainly readers from the physical, biological, and social sciences, as the only mathematical background assumed is elementary calculus. Methods are developed as required, and the reader can thus acquire useful tools for planning, analyzing, designing,and evaluating studies of growth transfer and diffusion phenomena. The book draws on the author's own hands-on experience in problems of environmental diffusion and dispersion, as well as in technology transfer and innovation diffusion.

This book intends to stimulate research in simulation of diff usion problems in building physics, by fi rst providing an overview of mathematical models and numerical techniques such as the fi nitediff erence and fi nite-element methods traditionally used in building simulation tools. Then, nonconventional methods such as reduced order models, boundary integral approaches and spectral methods are presented, which might be considered in the next generation of building-energy-simulation tools. The advantage of these methods includes the improvement of the numerical solution of diff usion phenomena, especially in large domains relevant to building energy performance analysis.

This book is the second edition of Numerical methods for diffusion phenomena in building physics: a practical introduction originally published by PUCPRESS (2016). It intends to stimulate research in simulation of diffusion problems in building physics, by providing an overview of mathematical models and numerical techniques such as the finite difference and finite-element methods traditionally used in building simulation tools. Nonconventional methods such as reduced order models, boundary integral approaches and spectral methods are presented, which might be considered in the next generation of building-energy-simulation tools. In this reviewed edition, an innovative way to simulate energy and hydrothermal performance are presented, bringing some light on innovative approaches in the field.

This book provides a contemporary treatment of the problems related to anomalous diffusion and anomalous relaxation. It collects and promotes unprecedented applications dealing with diffusion problems and surface effects, adsorption-desorption phenomena, memory effects, reaction-diffusion equations, and relaxation in constrained structures of classical and quantum processes. The topics covered by the book are of current interest and comprehensive range, including concepts in diffusion and stochastic physics, random walks, and elements of fractional calculus. They are accompanied by a detailed exposition of the mathematical techniques intended to serve the reader as a tool to handle modern boundary value problems. This self-contained text can be used as a reference source for graduates and researchers working in applied mathematics, physics of complex systems and fluids, condensed matter physics, statistical physics, chemistry, chemical and electrical engineering, biology, and many others.

In this concise, clear introduction, the authors describe the theory of spatial diffusion, its method of measurement and many of its applications. The seminal work of Torsten Hagerstrand, who introduced the original spatial model of diffusion, is outlined. The authors then summarise the developments that have been made to Hagerstrand's formulation, and make suggestions for future research.

Since its first publication in 1965 in the series Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften this book has had a profound and enduring influence on research into the stochastic processes associated with diffusion phenomena. Generations of mathematicians have appreciated the clarity of the descriptions given of one- or more- dimensional diffusion processes and the mathematical insight provided into Brownian motion. Now, with its republication in the Classics in Mathematics it is hoped that a new generation will be able to enjoy the classic text of Itô and McKean.