Differential flow induced Chemical

Instability
for Reaction Diffusion System

By- Shibashis Paul

Supervised By- Prof. D. S. Ray
Physical Chemistry
IACS

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

1) Reaction Diffusion System: Reaction diffusion systems are characterized as chemical systems with two or more active
components that react with other components, and with different diffusion coefficient. The form of
two reacting and diffusing chemicals are following,
..(1)
..(2)

Assumptions:i)

Reaction terms Diffusion terms

The reaction terms, f1 and f2, are assumed to be a function of present and local
concentration ui only (i = 1, 2), but not explicitly on space and time.

ii) The diffusion coefficient Di do not explicitly depend on space and time.
Ref:- A. M. Turing, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B237, 37 (1952).

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

Steady State : It is the state of the system in which all the variables are constant, i. e.,

Hence for steady state the earlier mentioned reaction diffusion equations becomes,

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

Applying a perturbation of the form
equation,

in steady state leads to the following

..(3)

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

2) Differential Flow Induced Instability : This is particularly an interesting kind of instability, where the flow velocity affects
the stability of the stable homogeneous state found by Rovinsky et. al. in 1992.
In differential flow induced chemical instability one of the species of the activator
inhibitor system is kept immobilized on a solid support.
The other species flows in a one-dimensional reactor with velocity v.

..(4)
..(5)
Reaction terms Diffusion terms Flow term
F(x,y) and G(x,y) are dependent on the model. v is the flow velocity. x, y are
concentration of two species.
Ref:- A. B. Rovinsky and M. Menzinger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 1193 (1992).

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

Linear Stability Analysis of the flow equations for Gearer Meinhardt model: Gearer Meinhardt system is a reaction-diffusion system of activator-inhibitor type.
This model is very useful in describing important types of pattern formation and
morphogenesis observed in developmental biology.

The evolution dynamics of the reacting species u and v is described by the following
equations,
..(6)
..(7)
Reaction terms Diffusion terms Flow term
Here u act as activator, as with increase in u both the rate of formation of u and v
increases.
And v acts as inhibitor because increase in the concentration of v, formation of both
u and v decreases.

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

Here,

Generally, the system's inhomogeneity comes from the short range activation by u and
long range inhibition by v, i. e. , Dv >> Du.
Steady homogeneous state of the above mentioned model is given by,
..(8)

Now given a small perturbation

around this steady state
linearized dynamics get the form as follows;

, the

..(9)

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

..(10)

The eigen value of a matrix(M) is given by,

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

Now, for dispersion diagram of the growth rate against log(K) we need the
expression for Re() which is represented as follows;
..(11)

The log(K) range corresponding to positive growth rate Re(+) is responsible

for spatio-temporal inhomogeneity.

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

3) Results:-

Components with no diffusivity: Diffusivity of both the components of the system are refused and only
external flow term is included,

In this condition we can derive the below mentioned relations as k tends

to infinity,

Then if

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

The critical wave number at which this instability arises given by Kc ,
..(12)
We have used the parameter values
plot of Re(+ ) vs. log(K) using the equation (11),

and obtained the resultant

Fig.1:plot of Re(+ ) vs. log(K) with Du=0.0, Dv=0.0, =0.5, =0.4

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

Immobilized inhibitor : In this case the inhibitor is considered to be attached to a solid support implying
that Dv=0.0,

We have used the value of Du=0.04 and used eq. (11) to obtain the plot of Re(+ ) vs.
log(K),

Fig.2:plot of Re(+ ) vs. log(K) with Du=0.04, Dv=0.0, =0.5, =0.4

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

Numerical simulation has also been done for different external flow velocities and stripe-like
spatial pattern is obtained at V=0.4 which gets converted to spotlike pattern with the further
increase in flow velocity,
The numerical results are in well agreement with the analytical results
(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig.3:wave profile of u at 5000 t.u. for Du=0.04, Dv=0.0, =0.5, =0.4 (a) V=0.4, (b) V=0.8, (c) V=1.0, (d) V=2.0

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

Components with competetive diffusivity: In this case both the components of the system has diffusivity and inhibitor is more
diffusive than activator,
We have used the value of Du=0.04, Dv=1.0 and used eq. (11) to obtain the plot of
Re(+ ) vs. log(K),

Fig.4:plot of Re(+ ) vs. log(K) with Du=0.04, Dv=1.0, =0.5, =0.4

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

We have done the Numerical simulation of the system with the mentioned parameter values
and spatio-temporal inhomogeneity is observed .
The hexagonal spot like patterns are stable in absence of external flow and in presence of flow
spots start to propagate towards the direction of flow and the shape of the spots are deformed.
(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig.3:wave profile of u at 5000 t.u. for Du=0.04, Dv=1.0, =0.5, =0.4 (a) V=0.4, (b) V=0.8, (c) V=1.0, (d) V=2.0

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

3) Conclutions : Under the consideration that only the activator is diffusing (Du = 0:04;Dv = 0:0) numerical
simulation results show stripe-like stationary patterns which are gradually ruptured and
converted to spot-like patterns with increase in flow velocity.
While both the components of the system are considered to be diffusing, stable hexagonal
spot-like pattern is generated in absence of external flow.
Introduction of external flow into the system perturbs the shape of the spots towards the
direction of the flow and also the spots start to propagating along the direction of the flow.

Differential flow induced Chemical Instability for Reaction Diffusion System

3) Acknowledgement : I am very much obliged to my supervisor Prof. D. S. Ray , for his encouragement and
suggestion during the project .

I thank Shyamolina Ghosh & other senior lab mates for their support and guidance during
this project.
I am grateful to entire IntPhD program for providing this platform .

Thank You