Paper 2, Section II, A

Mathematical Biology
Part II, 2010

The radially symmetric spread of an insect population density n(r,t)n(r, t) in the plane is described by the equation

nt=D0rr[r(nn0)2nr]\frac{\partial n}{\partial t}=\frac{D_{0}}{r} \frac{\partial}{\partial r}\left[r\left(\frac{n}{n_{0}}\right)^{2} \frac{\partial n}{\partial r}\right]

Suppose QQ insects are released at r=0r=0 at t=0t=0. We wish to find a similarity solution to ()(*) in the form

n(r,t)=n0λ2(t)F(rr0λ(t))n(r, t)=\frac{n_{0}}{\lambda^{2}(t)} F\left(\frac{r}{r_{0} \lambda(t)}\right)

Show first that the PDE ()(*) reduces to an ODE for FF if λ(t)\lambda(t) obeys the equation

λ5dλdt=CD0r02\lambda^{5} \frac{d \lambda}{d t}=C \frac{D_{0}}{r_{0}^{2}}

where CC is an arbitrary constant (that may be set to unity), and then obtain λ(t)\lambda(t) and FF such that F(0)=1F(0)=1 and F(ξ)=0F(\xi)=0 for ξ1\xi \geqslant 1. Determine r0r_{0} in terms of n0n_{0} and QQ. Sketch the function n(r,t)n(r, t) at various times to indicate its qualitative behaviour.