Fick's 2nd Law of Diffusion using FEM (Direct Stiffness)

Direct stiffness finite element method to solve for c (concentration) at given x (1D space) and t (time) values

%% Finite Element Method with D = diffusivity applied to Fick's 2nd Law of Diffusion: dc/dt = D*d^2c/dx^2
% by Prof. Roche C. de Guzman
clear; clc; close('all');
%% Given
xi = 0; xf = 0.6; dx = 0.04; % x range and step size = dx [m]
xL = 0; xU = 0.1; % initial value x lower and upper limits [m]
ti = 0; tf = 0.05; dt = 4e-4; % t range and step size = dt [s]
ci = 2; % initial concentration value [ng/L]
cLU = 8; % initial concentration value within x lower and upper limits [ng/L]
D = 1.5; % diffusivity or diffusion coefficient [m^2/s]
%% Calculations
% Independent variables: x and t
X = xi:dx:xf; nx = numel(X); T = ti:dt:tf; nt = numel(T); % x and t vectors and their number of elements
[x,t] = meshgrid(X,T); x = x'; t = t'; % x and t matrices
% Dependent variable: c
c = ones(nx,nt)*ci; % temporary c(x,t) matrix with rows: c(x) and columns: c(t)
% Initial values and Dirichlet boundary
I = find((X>=xL)&(X<=xU)); % index of lower and upper limits
c(I,1) = cLU; % c at t = 0 for lower and upper limits
% FEM (direct stiffness method): [C]*{Y1} + [K]*{Y} = {F}
where C = damping matrix, Y1 = dc/dt, K = stiffness matrix, Y = c, and F = load vector