Qualitative numerical analysis of a free-boundary diffusive logistic model

Abstract

A two-dimensional free-boundary diffusive logistic model with radial symmetry is considered. This model is used in various fields to describe the dynamics of spreading in different media: fire propagation, spreading of population or biological invasions. Due to the radial symmetry, the free boundary can be treated by a front-fixing approach resulting in a fixed-domain non-linear problem, which is solved by an explicit finite difference method. Qualitative numerical analysis establishes the stability, positivity and monotonicity conditions. Special attention is paid to the spreading-vanishing dichotomy and a numerical algorithm for the spreading-vanishing boundary is proposed. Theoretical statements are illustrated by numerical tests.