A posteriori error estimates of edge residual type of finite element method for nonmonotone quasi‐linear elliptic problems

In this article, we study the edge residual‐based a posteriori error estimates of conforming linear finite element method for nonmonotone quasi‐linear elliptic problems. It is proven that edge residuals dominate a posteriori error estimates. Up to higher order perturbations, edge residuals can act as a posteriori error estimators. The global reliability and local efficiency bounds are established both in H ¹‐norm and L ²‐norm. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed error estimators. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 813–837, 2014     

Stabilized mixed finite element methods for the Navier‐Stokes equations with damping

In this paper, the stabilized mixed finite element methods are presented for the Navier‐Stokes equations with damping. The existence and uniqueness of the weak solutions are proven by use of the Brouwer fixed‐point theorem. Then, optimal error estimates for the H¹‐norm and L²‐norm of the velocity and the L²‐norm of the pressure are derived. Moreover, on the basis of the optimal L²‐norm error estimate of the velocity, a stabilized two‐step method is proposed, which is more efficient than the usual stabilized methods. Finally, two numerical examples are implemented to confirm the theoretical analysis.     

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.     

Local mesh refinement for the discretization of Neumann boundary control problems on polyhedra

This paper deals with optimal control problems constrained by linear elliptic partial differential equations. The case where the right‐hand side of the Neumann boundary is controlled, is studied. The variational discretization concept for these problems is applied, and discretization error estimates are derived. On polyhedral domains, one has to deal with edge and corner singularities, which reduce the convergence rate of the discrete solutions, that is, one cannot expect convergence order two for linear finite elements on quasi‐uniform meshes in general. As a remedy, a local mesh refinement strategy is presented, and a priori bounds for the refinement parameters are derived such that convergence with optimal rate is guaranteed. As a by‐product, finite element error estimates in the H¹(Ω)‐norm, L²(Ω)‐norm and L²(Γ)‐norm for the boundary value problem are obtained, where the latter one turned out to be the main challenge. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element superconvergence approximation for one‐dimensional singularly perturbed problems

Superconvergence approximations of singularly perturbed two‐point boundary value problems of reaction‐diffusion type and convection‐diffusion type are studied. By applying the standard finite element method of any fixed order p on a modified Shishkin mesh, superconvergence error bounds of (N^?1 ln (N + 1))^p+1 in a discrete energy norm in approximating problems with the exponential type boundary layers are established. The error bounds are uniformly valid with respect to the singular perturbation parameter. Numerical tests indicate that the error estimates are sharp; in particular, the logarithmic factor is not removable. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 374–395, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/num.10001     

Alternating direction finite volume element methods for 2D parabolic partial differential equations

On the basis of rectangular partition and bilinear interpolation, this article presents alternating direction finite volume element methods for two dimensional parabolic partial differential equations and gives three computational schemes, one is analogous to Douglas finite difference scheme with second order splitting error, the second has third order splitting error, and the third is an extended locally one dimensional scheme. Optimal L² norm or H¹ semi‐norm error estimates are obtained for these schemes. Finally, two numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the schemes. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2007     

Convergence and superconvergence analysis of finite element methods on graded meshes for singularly and semisingularly perturbed reaction–diffusion problems

The bilinear finite element methods on appropriately graded meshes are considered both for solving singular and semisingular perturbation problems. In each case, the quasi-optimal order error estimates are proved in the ε-weighted H¹-norm uniformly in singular perturbation parameter ε, up to a logarithmic factor. By using the interpolation postprocessing technique, the global superconvergent error estimates in ε-weighted H¹-norm are obtained. Numerical experiments are given to demonstrate validity of our theoretical analysis.     

Superconvergence analysis of a linearized three‐step backward differential formula finite element method for nonlinear Sobolev equation

A linearized three‐step backward differential formula (BDF) Galerkin finite element method (FEM) is developed for nonlinear Sobolev equation with bilinear element. Temporal error and spatial error are discussed through introducing a time‐discrete system. Solutions of the time‐discrete system are bounded in H²‐norm by the temporal error. Superconvergence results of order O(h² + τ³) in H¹‐norm for the original variable are deduced based on the spatial error. Some new tricks are utilized to get higher order of the temporal error and the spatial error. At last, two numerical examples are provided to support the theoretical analysis. Here, h is the subdivision parameter, and τ is the time step.     

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.     

Global Existence of Smooth Solutions and Convergence to Barenblatt Solutions for the Physical Vacuum Free Boundary Problem of Compressible Euler Equations with Damping

For the physical vacuum free boundary problem with the sound speed being C^1/2‐Hölder continuous near vacuum boundaries of the one‐dimensional compressible Euler equations with damping, the global existence of the smooth solution is proved, which is shown to converge to the Barenblatt self‐similar solution for the porous media equation with the same total mass when the initial datum is a small perturbation of the Barenblatt solution. The pointwise convergence with a rate of density, the convergence rate of velocity in the supremum norm, and the precise expanding rate of the physical vacuum boundaries are also given. The proof is based on a construction of higher‐order weighted functionals with both space and time weights capturing the behavior of solutions both near vacuum states and in large time, an introduction of a new ansatz, higher‐order nonlinear energy estimates, and elliptic estimates.© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Error analysis of the L2 least‐squares finite element method for incompressible inviscid rotational flows

In this article we analyze the L² least‐squares finite element approximations to the incompressible inviscid rotational flow problem, which is recast into the velocity‐vorticity‐pressure formulation. The least‐squares functional is defined in terms of the sum of the squared L² norms of the residual equations over a suitable product function space. We first derive a coercivity type a priori estimate for the first‐order system problem that will play the crucial role in the error analysis. We then show that the method exhibits an optimal rate of convergence in the H¹ norm for velocity and pressure and a suboptimal rate of convergence in the L² norm for vorticity. A numerical example in two dimensions is presented, which confirms the theoretical error estimates. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2004     

A posteriori error estimates of stabilized finite volume method for the Stokes equations

In this work, the residual‐type posteriori error estimates of stabilized finite volume method are studied for the steady Stokes problem based on two local Gauss integrations. By using the residuals between the source term and numerical solutions, the computable global upper and local lower bounds for the errors of velocity in H¹ norm and pressure in L² norm are derived. Furthermore, a global upper bound of u ? u_h in L²‐norm is also derived. Finally, some numerical experiments are provided to verify the performances of the established error estimators. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ELLIPTIC H^2-VOLTERRA PROJECTION AND THE H^1-GALERKIN METHODS FOR THE INTEGRO-DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF EVOLUTION

This paper studies H^1-Galerkin methods for the integro-differential equations of evolution. The elliptic H^2-Volterra projection is induced and then used in the derivations of error estimates for semi-discrete and full-discrete H^1-Galerkin methods.The optimal L^2, H^1 and H^2 norm error estimates are obtained.     

Convergence and superconvergence analysis of an anisotropic nonconforming finite element methods for singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problems

The numerical approximation by a lower order anisotropic nonconforming finite element on appropriately graded meshes are considered for solving singular perturbation problems. The quasi-optimal order error estimates are proved in the ε-weighted H¹-norm valid uniformly, up to a logarithmic factor, in the singular perturbation parameter. By using the interpolation postprocessing technique, the global superconvergent error estimates in ε-weighted H¹-norm are obtained. Numerical experiments are given to demonstrate validity of our theoretical analysis.     

Error estimates for finite volume element methods for general second‐order elliptic problems

We treat the finite volume element method (FVE) for solving general second order elliptic problems as a perturbation of the linear finite element method (FEM), and obtain the optimal H¹ error estimate, H¹ superconvergence and L^p (1 < p ≤ ∞) error estimates between the solution of the FVE and that of the FEM. In particular, the superconvergence result does not require any extra assumptions on the mesh except quasi‐uniform. Thus the error estimates of the FVE can be derived by the standard error estimates of the FEM. Moreover we consider the effects of numerical integration and prove that the use of barycenter quadrature rule does not decrease the convergence orders of the FVE. The results of this article reveal that the FVE is in close relationship with the FEM. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 19: 693–708, 2003.     

Parallel Galerkin domain decomposition procedures for parabolic equation on general domain

Parallel Galerkin domain decomposition procedures for parabolic equation on general domain are given. These procedures use implicit Galerkin method in the subdomains and simple explicit flux calculation on the interdomain boundaries by integral mean method or extrapolation method to predict the inner‐boundary conditions. Thus, the parallelism can be achieved by these procedures. These procedures are conservative both in the subdomains and across interboundaries. The explicit nature of the flux prediction induces a time‐step limitation that is necessary to preserve stability, but this constraint is less severe than that for a fully explicit method. L²‐norm error estimates are derived for these procedures. Compared with the work of Dawson and Dupont [Math Comp 58 (1992), 21–35], these L²‐norm error estimates avoid the loss of H^?1/2 factor. Experimental results are presented to confirm the theoretical results. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

Weak Galerkin finite element methods for the biharmonic equation on polytopal meshes

A new weak Galerkin (WG) finite element method is introduced and analyzed in this article for the biharmonic equation in its primary form. This method is highly robust and flexible in the element construction by using discontinuous piecewise polynomials on general finite element partitions consisting of polygons or polyhedra of arbitrary shape. The resulting WG finite element formulation is symmetric, positive definite, and parameter‐free. Optimal order error estimates in a discrete H² norm is established for the corresponding WG finite element solutions. Error estimates in the usual L² norm are also derived, yielding a suboptimal order of convergence for the lowest order element and an optimal order of convergence for all high order of elements. Numerical results are presented to confirm the theory of convergence under suitable regularity assumptions. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 1003–1029, 2014     

Unconditional superconvergent analysis of a new mixed finite element method for Ginzburg–Landau equation

In this article, unconditional superconvergent analysis of a linearized fully discrete mixed finite element method is presented for a class of Ginzburg–Landau equation based on the bilinear element and zero‐order Nédélec's element pair (Q₁₁/Q₀₁ × Q₁₀). First, a time‐discrete system is introduced to split the error into temporal error and spatial error, and the corresponding error estimates are deduced rigorously. Second, the unconditional superclose and optimal estimate of order O(h² + τ) for u in H¹‐norm and p = ?u in L²‐norm are derived respectively without the restrictions on the ratio between h and τ, where h is the subdivision parameter and τ, the time step. Third, the global superconvergent results are obtained by interpolated postprocessing technique. Finally, some numerical results are carried out to confirm the theoretical analysis.     

A compact C0 discontinuous Galerkin method for Kirchhoff plates

A compact C⁰ discontinuous Galerkin (CCDG) method is developed for solving the Kirchhoff plate bending problems. Based on the CDG (LCDG) method for Kirchhoff plate bending problems, the CCDG method is obtained by canceling the term of global lifting operator and enhancing the term of local lifting operator. The resulted CCDG method possesses the compact stencil, that is only the degrees of freedom belonging to neighboring elements are connected. The advantages of CCDG method are: (1) CCDG method just requires C⁰ finite element spaces; (2) the stiffness matrix is sparser than CDG (LCDG) method; and (3) it does not contain any parameter which can not be quantified a priori compared to C⁰ interior penalty (IP) method. The optimal order error estimates in certain broken energy norm and H¹‐norm for the CCDG method are derived under minimal regularity assumptions on the exact solution with the help of some local lower bound estimates of a posteriori error analysis. Some numerical results are included to verify the theoretical convergence orders. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1265–1287, 2015