Certain Problems with the Application of Stochastic Diffusion Processes for the Description of Chemical Engineering Phenomena. Numerical Simulation of One-Dimensional Diffusion Process

Abstract

Some problems are analyzed arising when a numerical simulation of a random motion of a large ensemble of diffusing particles is used to approximate the solution of a one-dimensional diffusion equation. The particle motion is described by means of a stochastic differential equation. The problems emerging especially when the diffusion coefficient is a function of spatial coordinate are discussed. The possibility of simulation of various kinds of stochastic integral is demonstrated. It is shown that the application of standard numerical procedures commonly adopted for ordinary differential equations may lead to erroneous results when used for solution of stochastic differential equations. General conclusions are verified by numerical solution of three stochastic differential equations with different forms of the diffusion coefficient.