ANALYSIS ON A NUMERICAL SCHEME WITH SECOND-ORDER TIME ACCURACY FOR NONLINEAR DIFFUSION EQUATIONS

A nonlinear fully implicit finite difference scheme with second-order time evolution for nonlinear diffusion problem is studied.The scheme is constructed with two-layer coupled discretization (TLCD) at each time step.It does not stir numerical oscillation,while per-mits large time step length,and produces more accurate numerical solutions than the other two well-known second-order time evolution nonlinear schemes,the Crank-Nicolson (CN)scheme and the backward difference formula second-order (BDF2) scheme.By developing a new reasoning technique,we overcome the difficulties caused by the coupled nonlinear discrete diffusion operators at different time layers,and prove rigorously the TLCD scheme is uniquely solvable,unconditionally stable,and has second-order convergence in both s-pace and time.Numerical tests verify the theoretical results,and illustrate its superiority over the CN and BDF2 schemes.     

Analysis of a decoupled time‐stepping algorithm for reduced MHD system modeling magneto‐convection

In this article, we analyze the stability and error estimate of a decoupled algorithm for a magneto‐convection problem. Magneto‐convection is assumed to be modeled by a coupled system of reduced magneto‐hydrodynamic (RMHD) equations and convection‐diffusion equation. The proposed algorithm applies the second‐order backward difference formula in time and finite element in space. To obtain a noniterative decouple algorithm from the fully discrete nonlinear system, we use a second‐order extrapolation in time to the nonlinear terms such that their skew symmetry properties are preserved. We prove the stability of the algorithm and derive error estimates without assuming any stability conditions. The algorithm is unconditionally stable and requires the solution of one RMHD problem and one convection‐diffusion equation per time step. Numerical test is presented that illustrates the accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm.     

The Conservation and Convergence of Two Finite Difference Schemes for KdV Equations with Initial and Boundary Value Conditions

Korteweg-de Vries equation is a nonlinear evolutionary partial differential equation that is of third order in space. For the approximation to this equation with the initial and boundary value conditions using the finite difference method, the difficulty is how to construct matched finite difference schemes at all the inner grid points. In this paper, two finite difference schemes are constructed for the problem. The accuracy is second-order in time and first-order in space. The first scheme is a two-level nonlinear implicit finite difference scheme and the second one is a three-level linearized finite difference scheme. The Browder fixed point theorem is used to prove the existence of the nonlinear implicit finite difference scheme. The conservation, boundedness, stability, convergence of these schemes are discussed and analyzed by the energy method together with other techniques. The two-level nonlinear finite difference scheme is proved to be unconditionally convergent and the three-level linearized one is proved to be conditionally convergent. Some numerical examples illustrate the efficiency of the proposed finite difference schemes.     

A monotone scheme for Hamilton–Jacobi equations via the nonstandard finite difference method

A usual way of approximating Hamilton–Jacobi equations is to couple space finite element discretization with time finite difference discretization. This classical approach leads to a severe restriction on the time step size for the scheme to be monotone. In this paper, we couple the finite element method with the nonstandard finite difference method, which is based on Mickens' rule of nonlocal approximation. The scheme obtained in this way is unconditionally monotone. The convergence of the new method is discussed and numerical results that support the theory are provided. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accurate finite difference schemes for solving a 3D micro heat transfer model in an N-carrier system with the Neumann boundary condition in spherical coordinates

In this study, we propose a 3D generalized micro heat transfer model in an N-carrier system with the Neumann boundary condition in spherical coordinates, which can be applied to describe the non-equilibrium heating in biological cells. Two improved unconditionally stable Crank-Nicholson schemes are then presented for solving the generalized model. In particular, we delicately adjust the location of the interior grid point that is next to the boundary so that the Neumann boundary condition can be applied directly without discretization. As such, a second-order accurate finite difference scheme without using any fictitious grid points is obtained. The convergence rates of the numerical solution are tested by an example. Results show that the convergence rates of the present schemes are about 2.0 with respect to the spatial variable r, which improves the accuracy of the Crank-Nicholson scheme coupled with the conventional first-order approximation for the Neumann boundary condition.     

Implicit‐explicit multistep finite element methods for nonlinear convection‐diffusion problems

Implicit‐explicit multistep finite element methods for nonlinear convection‐diffusion equations are presented and analyzed. In space we discretize by finite element methods. The discretization in time is based on linear multistep schemes. The linear part of the equation is discretized implicitly and the nonlinear part of the equation explicitly. The schemes are stable and very efficient. We derive optimal order error estimates. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 17:93–104, 2001     

Nonlinear Galerkin method and two-step method for the Navier-Stokes equations

This article represents a new nonlinear Galerkin scheme for the Navier-Stokes equations. This scheme consists of a nonlinear Galerkin finite element method and a two-step difference method. Moreover, we also provide a Galerkin scheme. By convergence analysis, two numerical schemes have the same second-order convergence accuracy for the spatial discretization and time discretization if H is chosen such that H = O(h^2/3). However, the nonlinear Galerkin scheme is simpler than the Galerkin scheme, namely, this scheme can save a large amount of computational time. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Nonlinear scheme with high accuracy for nonlinear coupled parabolic-hyperbolic system

A nonlinear finite difference scheme with high accuracy is studied for a class of two-dimensional nonlinear coupled parabolic-hyperbolic system. Rigorous theoretical analysis is made for the stability and convergence properties of the scheme, which shows it is unconditionally stable and convergent with second order rate for both spatial and temporal variables. In the argument of theoretical results, difficulties arising from the nonlinearity and coupling between parabolic and hyperbolic equations are overcome, by an ingenious use of the method of energy estimation and inductive hypothesis reasoning. The reasoning method here differs from those used for linear implicit schemes, and can be widely applied to the studies of stability and convergence for a variety of nonlinear schemes for nonlinear PDE problems. Numerical tests verify the results of the theoretical analysis. Particularly it is shown that the scheme is more accurate and faster than a previous two-level nonlinear scheme with first order temporal accuracy.     

IIM-based ADI finite difference scheme for nonlinear convection–diffusion equations with interfaces

Based on Li’s immersed interface method (IIM), an ADI-type finite difference scheme is proposed for solving two-dimensional nonlinear convection–diffusion interface problems on a fixed cartesian grid, which is unconditionally stable and converges with two-order accuracy in both time and space in maximum norm. Correction terms are added to the right-hand side of standard ADI scheme at irregular points. The nonlinear convection terms are treated by Adams–Bashforth method, without affecting the stability of difference schemes. A new method for computing the correction terms is developed, in which the Adams–Bashforth method is employed. Thus we can get an explicit approximation for the computation of corrections, when the jump condition is solution-dependent. Three numerical experiments are displayed and analyzed. The numerical results show good agreement with the exact solutions and confirm the convergence order.     

A fast numerical method for solving coupled Burgers' equations

A new fast numerical scheme is proposed for solving time‐dependent coupled Burgers' equations. The idea of operator splitting is used to decompose the original problem into nonlinear pure convection subproblems and diffusion subproblems at each time step. Using Taylor's expansion, the nonlinearity in convection subproblems is explicitly treated by resolving a linear convection system with artificial inflow boundary conditions that can be independently solved. A multistep technique is proposed to rescue the possible instability caused by the explicit treatment of the convection system. Meanwhile, the diffusion subproblems are always self‐adjoint and coercive at each time step, and they can be efficiently solved by some existing preconditioned iterative solvers like the preconditioned conjugate galerkin method, and so forth. With the help of finite element discretization, all the major stiffness matrices remain invariant during the time marching process, which makes the present approach extremely fast for the time‐dependent nonlinear problems. Finally, several numerical examples are performed to verify the stability, convergence and performance of the new method.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 1823–1838, 2017     

EFFICIENT LINEAR SCHEMES WITH UNCONDITIONAL ENERGY STABILITY FOR THE PHASE FIELD MODEL OF SOLID-STATE DEWETTING PROBLEMS

In this paper, we study linearly first and second order in time, uniquely solvable and unconditionally energy stable numerical schemes to approximate the phase field model of solid-state dewetting problems based on the novel "scalar auxiliary variable" (SAV) approach, a new developed efficient and accurate method for a large class of gradient flows. The schemes are based on the first order Euler method and the second order backward differential formulas (BDF2) for time discretization, and finite element methods for space discretization. The proposed schemes are proved to be unconditionally stable and the discrete equations are uniquely solvable for all time steps. Various numerical experiments are presented to validate the stability and accuracy of the proposed schemes.     

THE UPWIND FINITE ELEMENT SCHEME AND MAXIMUM PRINCIPLE FOR NONLINEAR CONVECTION-DIFFUSION PROBLEM

In this paper, a kind of partial upwind finite element scheme is studied for twodimensional nonlinear convection-diffusion problem. Nonlinear convection term approximated by partial upwind finite element method considered over a mesh dual to the triangular grid, whereas the nonlinear diffusion term approximated by Galerkin method. A linearized partial upwind finite element scheme and a higher order accuracy scheme are constructed respectively. It is shown that the numerical solutions of these schemes preserve discrete maximum principle. The convergence and error estimate are also given for both schemes under some assumptions. The numerical results show that these partial upwind finite element scheme are feasible and accurate.     

Analysis of stability and dispersion in a finite element method for Debye and Lorentz dispersive media

We study the stability properties of, and the phase error present in, a finite element scheme for Maxwell's equations coupled with a Debye or Lorentz polarization model. In one dimension we consider a second order formulation for the electric field with an ordinary differential equation for the electric polarization added as an auxiliary constraint. The finite element method uses linear finite elements in space for the electric field as well as the electric polarization, and a theta scheme for the time discretization. Numerical experiments suggest the method is unconditionally stable for both Debye and Lorentz models. We compare the stability and phase error properties of the method presented here with those of finite difference methods that have been analyzed in the literature. We also conduct numerical simulations that verify the stability and dispersion properties of the scheme. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

A second order characteristics finite element scheme for natural convection problems

In this paper a second order characteristics finite element scheme is applied to the numerical solution of natural convection problems. Firstly, after recalling the mathematical model, a second order time discretization of the material time derivative is introduced. Next, fully discretized schemes are proposed by using finite element methods. Numerical results for the two-dimensional problem of buoyancy-driven flow in a square cavity with differentially heated side walls are given and compared with a reference solution.     

A FULLY DISCRETE IMPLICIT-EXPLICIT FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR SOLVING THE FITZHUGH-NAGUMO MODEL

This work develops a fully discrete implicit-explicit finite element scheme for a parabolic-ordinary system with a nonlinear reaction term which is known as the FitzHugh-Nagumo model from physiology. The first-order backward Euler discretization for the time derivative, and an implicit-explicit discretization for the nonlinear reaction term are employed for the model, with a simple linearization technique used to make the process of solving equations more efficient. The stability and convergence of the fully discrete implicit-explicit finite element method are proved, which shows that the FitzHugh-Nagumo model is accurately solved and the trajectory of potential transmission is obtained. The numerical results are also reported to verify the convergence results and the stability of the proposed method.     

Finite-element method for time-dependent euler equation

This paper presents finite element methods to approximate inviscid incompressible flow problems. First we emphasize the conservation properties of these problems, and we show that finite element methods appear as a very natural way to find conservative schemes such as Arakawa's scheme. We give convergence theorems and an error analysis of finite element discretization schemes. We turn then to the time differencing problem. We derive stability and convergence results for a second-order semi-implicit scheme and for the leap-frog scheme.     

Improved T − ψ nodal finite element schemes for eddy current problems

The aim of this paper is to propose improved T − ψ finite element schemes for eddy current problems in the three-dimensional bounded domain with a simply-connected conductor. In order to utilize nodal finite elements in space discretization, we decompose the magnetic field into summation of a vector potential and the gradient of a scalar potential in the conductor; while in the nonconducting domain, we only deal with the gradient of the scalar potential. As distinguished from the traditional coupled scheme with both vector and scalar potentials solved in a discretizing equation system, the proposed decoupled scheme is presented to solve them in two separate equation systems, which avoids solving a saddle-point equation system like the traditional coupled scheme and leads to an important saving in computational effort. The simulation results and the data comparison of TEAM Workshop Benchmark Problem 7 between the coupled and decoupled schemes show the validity and efficiency of the decoupled one.     

The second order projection method in time for the time-dependent natural convection problem

We consider the second-order projection schemes for the time-dependent natural convection problem. By the projection method, the natural convection problem is decoupled into two linear subproblems, and each subproblem is solved more easily than the original one. The error analysis is accomplished by interpreting the second-order time discretization of a perturbed system which approximates the time-dependent natural convection problem, and the rigorous error analysis of the projection schemes is presented. Our main results of the second order projection schemes for the time-dependent natural convection problem are that the convergence for the velocity and temperature are strongly second order in time while that for the pressure is strongly first order in time.     

Semi‐implicit schemes for transient Navier–Stokes equations and eddy viscosity models

This study presents two computational schemes for the numerical approximation of solutions to eddy viscosity models as well as transient Navier–Stokes equations. The eddy viscosity model is one example of a class of Large Eddy Simulation models, which are used to simulate turbulent flow. The first approximation scheme is a first order single step method that treats the nonlinear term using a semi‐implicit discretization. The second scheme employs a two step approach that applies a Crank–Nicolson method for the nonlinear term while also retaining the semi‐implicit treatment used in the first scheme. A finite element approximation is used in the spatial discretization of the partial differential equations. The convergence analysis for both schemes is discussed in detail, and numerical results are given for two test problems one of which is the two dimensional flow around a cylinder. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

Convergence and stability of finite element nonlinear Galerkin method for the Navier-Stokes equations

In this article, we present a new fully discrete finite element nonlinear Galerkin method, which are well suited to the long time integration of the Navier-Stokes equations. Spatial discretization is based on two-grid finite element technique; time discretization is based on Euler explicit scheme with variable time step size. Moreover, we analyse the boundedness, convergence and stability condition of the finite element nonlinear Galerkin method. Our discussion shows that the time step constraints of the method depend only on the coarse grid parameter and the time step constraints of the finite element Galerkin method depend on the fine grid parameter under the same convergence accuracy. Received February 2, 1994 / Revised version received December 6, 1996