From 30ead6980e98f3229a2a6892f5ecd0a046a1d69c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Holger Class <holger.class@iws.uni-stuttgart.de>
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2018 16:24:54 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] time discretization

---
 doc/handbook/5_models.tex | 47 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 43 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/handbook/5_models.tex b/doc/handbook/5_models.tex
index 17d6deb998..8f4809ce6a 100644
--- a/doc/handbook/5_models.tex
+++ b/doc/handbook/5_models.tex
@@ -201,10 +201,49 @@ in the Doxygen documentation at
 \url{http://www.dumux.org/doxygen-stable/html-\DumuxVersion/modules.php}.
 The documentation includes a detailed description for every model.
 
-\subsubsection{Temporal discretization}
-We discretize time with an explicit or implicit Euler
-method.
-% TODO: make section with more details on temporal discretization
+\subsubsection{Time discretization}
+
+Our systems of partial differential equations are discretized in space and in time. 
+
+Let us consider the general case of a balance equation of the following form
+\begin{equation}\label{eq:generalbalance}
+\frac{\partial m(u)}{\partial t} + \nabla\cdot\mathbf{f}(u, \nabla u) + q(u) = 0,
+\end{equation}
+seeking an unknown quantity $u$ in terms of storage $m$, flux $\mathbf{f}$ and source $q$.
+All available Dumux models can be written mathematically in form of \eqref{eq:generalbalance}
+with possibly vector-valued quantities $u$, $m$, $q$ and a tensor-valued flux $\mathbf{f}$.
+For the sake of simplicity, we assume scalar quantities $u$, $m$, $q$ and a vector-valued
+flux $\mathbf{f}$ in the notation below.
+
+For discretizing \eqref{eq:generalbalance} we need to choose an
+approximation for the temporal derivative $\partial m(u)/\partial t$.
+While many elaborate methods for this approximation exist,
+we focus on the simplest one of a first order difference quotient
+\begin{equation}\label{eq:euler}
+\frac{\partial m(u_{k/k+1})}{\partial t}
+\approx \frac{m(u_{k+1}) - m(u_k)}{\Delta t_{k+1}}
+\end{equation}
+for approximating the solution $u$ at time $t_k$ (forward) or $t_{k+1}$ (backward).
+The question of whether to choose the forward or the backward quotient leads to the
+explicit and implicit Euler method, respectively.
+In case of the former, inserting \eqref{eq:euler} in \eqref{eq:generalbalance}
+at time $t_k$ leads to
+\begin{equation}\label{eq:expliciteuler}
+\frac{m(u_{k+1}) - m(u_k)}{\Delta t_{k+1}} + \nabla\cdot\mathbf{f}(u_k, \nabla u_k) + q(u_k) = 0,
+\end{equation}
+whereas the implicit Euler method is described as
+\begin{equation}\label{eq:impliciteuler}
+\frac{m(u_{k+1}) - m(u_k)}{\Delta t_{k+1}}
++ \nabla\cdot\mathbf{f}(u_{k+1}, \nabla u_{k+1}) + q(u_{k+1}) = 0.
+\end{equation}
+Once the solution $u_k$ at time $t_k$ is known, it is straightforward
+to determine $m(u_{k+1})$ from \eqref{eq:expliciteuler},
+while attempting to do the same based on \eqref{eq:impliciteuler}
+involves the solution of a nonlinear system.
+On the other hand, the explicit method \eqref{eq:expliciteuler} is stable only
+if the time step size $\Delta t_{k+1}$ is below a certain limit that depends
+on the specific balance equation, whereas the implicit method \eqref{eq:impliciteuler}
+is unconditionally stable.
 
 \subsubsection{Algorithms to solve equations}
 The governing equations of each model can be solved monolithically or sequentially.
-- 
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