A posteriori error estimates for finite element approximations to the wave equation with discontinuous coefficients

We derive residual‐based a posteriori error estimates of finite element method for linear wave equation with discontinuous coefficients in a two‐dimensional convex polygonal domain. A posteriori error estimates for both the space‐discrete case and for implicit fully discrete scheme are discussed in L^∞(L²) norm. The main ingredients used in deriving a posteriori estimates are new Clément type interpolation estimates in conjunction with appropriate adaption of the elliptic reconstruction technique of continuous and discrete solutions. We use only an energy argument to establish a posteriori error estimates with optimal order convergence in the L^∞(L²) norm.     

Error estimates of CFVE method for fully nonlinear convection‐dominated diffusion problems

Finite volume method and characteristics finite element method are two important methods for solving the partial differential equations. These two methods are combined in this paper to establish a fully discrete characteristics finite volume method for fully nonlinear convection‐dominated diffusion problems. Through detailed theoretical analysis, optimal order H¹ norm error estimates are obtained for this fully discrete scheme. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fractional Crank–Nicolson–Galerkin finite element scheme for the time‐fractional nonlinear diffusion equation

This article presents a finite element scheme with Newton's method for solving the time‐fractional nonlinear diffusion equation. For time discretization, we use the fractional Crank–Nicolson scheme based on backward Euler convolution quadrature. We discuss the existence‐uniqueness results for the fully discrete problem. A new discrete fractional Gronwall type inequality for the backward Euler convolution quadrature is established. A priori error estimate for the fully discrete problem in L²(Ω) norm is derived. Numerical results based on finite element scheme are provided to validate theoretical estimates on time‐fractional nonlinear Fisher equation and Huxley equation.     

Interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin methods with implicit time‐integration techniques for nonlinear parabolic equations

We prove existence and numerical stability of numerical solutions of three fully discrete interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin methods for solving nonlinear parabolic equations. Under some appropriate regularity conditions, we give the l²(H¹) and l^∞(L²) error estimates of the fully discrete symmetric interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin–scheme with the implicit θ ‐schemes in time, which include backward Euler and Crank–Nicolson finite difference approximations. Our estimates are optimal with respect to the mesh size h. The theoretical results are confirmed by some numerical experiments. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

Error estimates for a discontinuous Galerkin method with interior penalties applied to nonlinear Sobolev equations

A Discontinuous Galerkin method with interior penalties is presented for nonlinear Sobolev equations. A semi‐discrete and a family of fully‐discrete time approximate schemes are formulated. These schemes are symmetric. Hp‐version error estimates are analyzed for these schemes. For the semi‐discrete time scheme a priori L^∞(H¹) error estimate is derived and similarly, l^∞(H¹) and l²(H¹) for the fully‐discrete time schemes. These results indicate that spatial rates in H¹ and time truncation errors in L² are optimal. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2008     

A new mixed scheme based on variation of constants for Sobolev equation with nonlinear convection term

A new mixed scheme which combines the variation of constants and the H ¹-Galerkin mixed finite element method is constructed for nonlinear Sobolev equation with nonlinear convection term. Optimal error estimates are derived for both semidiscrete and fully discrete schemes. Finally, some numerical results are given to confirm the theoretical analysis of the proposed method.     

Numerical analysis of the Allen-Cahn equation and approximation for mean curvature flows

Summary.  We propose and analyze a semi-discrete (in time) scheme and a fully discrete scheme for the Allen-Cahn equation u _t −Δu+ɛ⁻² f(u)=0 arising from phase transition in materials science, where ɛ is a small parameter known as an ``interaction length'. The primary goal of this paper is to establish some useful a priori error estimates for the proposed numerical methods, in particular, by focusing on the dependence of the error bounds on ɛ. Optimal order and quasi-optimal order error bounds are shown for the semi-discrete and fully discrete schemes under different constraints on the mesh size h and the time step size k and different regularity assumptions on the initial datum function u ₀ . In particular, all our error bounds depend on only in some lower polynomial order for small ɛ. The cruxes of the analysis are to establish stability estimates for the discrete solutions, to use a spectrum estimate result of de Mottoni and Schatzman [18, 19] and Chen [12] and to establish a discrete counterpart of it for a linearized Allen-Cahn operator to handle the nonlinear term. Finally, as a nontrivial byproduct, the error estimates are used to establish convergence and rate of convergence of the zero level set of the fully discrete solution to the motion by mean curvature flow and to the generalized motion by mean curvature flow. Received April 30, 2001 / Revised version received March 20, 2002 / Published online July 18, 2002 Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 65M60, 65M12, 65M15, 35B25, 35K57, 35Q99, 53A10 Correspondence to: A. Prohl     

and Norms Error Estimates in Finite Element Method for Linear Parabolic Interface Problems

We derive new a priori error estimates for linear parabolic equations with discontinuous coefficients. Due to low global regularity of the solutions the error analysis of the standard finite element method for parabolic problems is difficult to adopt for parabolic interface problems. A finite element procedure is, therefore, proposed and analyzed in this paper. We are able to show that the standard energy technique of finite element method for non-interface parabolic problems can be extended to parabolic interface problems if we allow interface triangles to be curved triangles. Optimal pointwise-in-time error estimates in the L ²(Ω) and H ¹(Ω) norms are shown to hold for the semidiscrete scheme. A fully discrete scheme based on backward Euler method is analyzed and pointwise-in-time error estimates are derived. The interfaces are assumed to be arbitrary shape but smooth for our purpose.     

Methods for the numerical solution of the Benjamin‐Bona‐Mahony‐Burgers equation

L^∞‐error estimates for finite element for Galerkin solutions for the Benjamin‐Bona‐Mahony‐Burgers (BBMB) equation are considered. A priori bound and the semidiscrete Galerkin scheme are studied using appropriate projections. For fully discrete Galerkin schemes, we consider the backward Euler method and analyze the corresponding error estimates. For a second order accuracy in time, we propose a three‐level backward method. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2008     

Stability and convergence of two‐grid Crank‐Nicolson extrapolation scheme for the time‐dependent natural convection equations

In this paper, we consider the Crank‐Nicolson extrapolation scheme for the 2D/3D unsteady natural convection problem. Our numerical scheme includes the implicit Crank‐Nicolson scheme for linear terms and the recursive linear method for nonlinear terms. Standard Galerkin finite element method is used to approximate the spatial discretization. Stability and optimal error estimates are provided for the numerical solutions. Furthermore, a fully discrete two‐grid Crank‐Nicolson extrapolation scheme is developed, the corresponding stability and convergence results are derived for the approximate solutions. Comparison from aspects of the theoretical results and computational efficiency, the two‐grid Crank‐Nicolson extrapolation scheme has the same order as the one grid method for velocity and temperature in H¹‐norm and for pressure in L²‐norm. However, the two‐grid scheme involves much less work than one grid method. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to verify the established theoretical results and illustrate the performances of the developed numerical schemes.     

Convergence analysis of virtual element methods for semilinear parabolic problems on polygonal meshes

In this article, we discuss and analyze new conforming virtual element methods (VEMs) for the approximation of semilinear parabolic problems on convex polygonal meshes in two spatial dimension. The spatial discretization is based on polynomial and suitable nonpolynomial functions, and a Euler backward scheme is employed for time discretization. The discrete formulation of both the proposed schemes—semidiscrete and fully discrete (with time discretization) is discussed in detail, and the unique solvability of the resulted schemes is discussed. A priori error estimates for the proposed schemes (semidiscrete and fully discrete) in H¹‐ and L²‐norms are derived under the assumption that the source term f is Lipschitz continuous. Some numerical experiments are conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed scheme and to confirm the theoretical convergence rates.     

Expanded mixed FEM with lowest order RT elements for nonlinear and nonlocal parabolic problems

In this paper, an expanded mixed finite element method with lowest order Raviart Thomas elements is developed and analyzed for a class of nonlinear and nonlocal parabolic problems. After obtaining some regularity results for the exact solution, a priori error estimates for the semidiscrete problem are established. Based on a linearized backward Euler method, a complete discrete scheme is proposed and a variant of Brouwer’s fixed point theorem is used to derive an existence of a fully discrete solution. Further, a priori error estimates for the fully discrete scheme are established. Finally, numerical experiments are conducted to confirm our theoretical findings.     

Error estimates of a linear decoupled Euler–FEM scheme for a mass diffusion model

We present error estimates of a linear fully discrete scheme for a three-dimensional mass diffusion model for incompressible fluids (also called Kazhikhov–Smagulov model). All unknowns of the model (velocity, pressure and density) are approximated in space by C ⁰-finite elements and in time an Euler type scheme is used decoupling the density from the velocity–pressure pair. If we assume that the velocity and pressure finite-element spaces satisfy the inf–sup condition and the density finite-element space contains the products of any two discrete velocities, we first obtain point-wise stability estimates for the density, under the constraint lim_(h,k)→0 h/k = 0 (h and k being the space and time discrete parameters, respectively), and error estimates for the velocity and density in energy type norms, at the same time. Afterwards, error estimates for the density in stronger norms are deduced. All these error estimates will be optimal (of order O(h+k){\mathcal{O}(h+k)}) for regular enough solutions without imposing nonlocal compatibility conditions at the initial time. Finally, we also study two convergent iterative methods for the two problems to solve at each time step, which hold constant matrices (independent of iterations).     

Weak Galerkin finite element methods for electric interface model with nonhomogeneous jump conditions

In this paper, the weak Galerkin finite element method (WG-FEM) is applied to a pulsed electric model arising in biological tissue when a biological cell is exposed to an electric field. A fitted WG-FEM is proposed to approximate the voltage of the pulsed electric model across the physical media involving an electric interface (surface membrane), and heterogeneous permittivity and a heterogeneous conductivity. This method uses totally discontinuous functions in approximation space and allows the usage of finite element partitions consisting of general polygonal meshes. Optimal pointwise-in-time error estimates in L²-norm and H¹-norm are shown to hold for the semidiscrete scheme even if the regularity of the solution is low on the whole domain. Furthermore, a fully discrete approximation based on backward Euler scheme is analyzed and related optimal error estimates are derived.     

Superconvergence analysis of finite element method for Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations

This article concerns with the superconvergence analysis of bilinear finite element method (FEM) for nonlinear Poisson–Nernst–Planck (PNP) equations. By employing high accuracy integral identities together with mean value technique, the superclose estimates in H¹‐norm are derived for the semi‐discrete and the backward Euler fully‐discrete schemes, which improve the suboptimal error estimate in L²‐norm in the previous literature. Furthermore, the global superconvergence results in H¹‐norm are obtained through interpolation postprocessing approach. Finally, a numerical example is provided to confirm the theoretical analysis.     

Attractors for Fully Discrete Finite Difference Scheme of Dissipative Zakharov Equations

A fully discrete finite difference scheme for dissipative Zakharov equations is analyzed. On the basis of a series of the time-uniform priori estimates of the difference solutions, the stability of the difference scheme and the error bounds of optimal order of the difference solutions are obtained in L²×H¹×H² over a finite time interval (0, T]. Finally, the existence of a global attractor is proved for a discrete dynamical system associated with the fully discrete finite difference scheme.     

Optimal H2‐error estimates of conservative compact difference scheme for the Zakharov equation in two‐space dimension

In this paper, a conservative compact difference scheme is proposed for the two‐dimensional nonlinear Zakharov equation with periodic boundary condition and initial condition. The proposed scheme not only conserve the mass and energy in the discrete level but also are efficient in practical experiments because the Fast Fourier transform (FFT) can be used to speed up the numerical computation. By using the standard energy method and induction argument, we can establish rigorously the unconditional and optimal H²‐error estimates. Some numerical examples are provided to support our theoretical results and show the accuracy and efficiency of the new scheme.     

Long time stability and convergence for fully discrete nonlinear galerkin methods

The aim of this paper is to analyze the fully discrete nonlinear Galerkin methods, which are well suited to the long time integration of dissipative partial differential equations.

With the help of several time discrete Gronwall lemmas, we are able to prove L ^∞(IR⁺,H ^α ) (α=0,1) stabilities of the fully discrete nonlinear Galerkin methods under a less restrictive time step constraint than that of the classical Galerkin methods.     

A posteriori error estimates for H 1-Galerkin mixed finite-element method for parabolic problems

The purpose of this article is to derive a posteriori error estimates for the H ¹-Galerkin mixed finite element method for parabolic problems. We study both semidiscrete and fully discrete a posteriori error analyses using standard energy argument. A fully discrete a posteriori error analysis based on the backward Euler method is analysed and upper bounds for the errors are derived. The estimators yield upper bounds for the errors which are global in space and time. Our analysis is based on residual approach and the estimators are free from edge residuals.     

A fully discrete numerical scheme for weighted mean curvature flow

Summary. We analyze a fully discrete numerical scheme approximating the evolution of n–dimensional graphs under anisotropic mean curvature. The highly nonlinear problem is discretized by piecewise linear finite elements in space and semi–implicitly in time. The scheme is unconditionally stable und we obtain optimal error estimates in natural norms. We also present numerical examples which confirm our theoretical results. Received October 2, 2000 / Published online July 25, 2001