FVM for diffusion problem or dispersive problems?

Wen

Hi,

I'd appreciate a lot if you can give me quick and easy hint on this.

I've read many papers of FVM schemes for hyperbolic conservation systems. Seems that the method is quite capable and useful for complicated domains.

While, my main questions are: Can it be used for pure diffusion problems in 2D or 3D? Can it be used for dispersive problems that involve 3rd order spatial derivatives?

In my poor understanding, FVM are based on conservation of some quantitiy such as mass on a control volume (grids, etc). Then how should this method be used for equations not describing conservation law or with higher order derivatives at all?

Thanks

Wen