One‐level and two‐level finite element methods for the Boussinesq problem

Previous works on the convergence of numerical methods for the Boussinesq problem were conducted, while the optimal L²‐norm error estimates for the velocity and temperature are still lacked. In this paper, the backward Euler scheme is used to discrete the time terms, standard Galerkin finite element method is adopted to approximate the variables. The MINI element is used to approximate the velocity and pressure, the temperature field is simulated by the linear polynomial. Under some restriction on the time step, we firstly present the optimal L² error estimates of approximate solutions. Secondly, two‐level method based on Stokes iteration for the Boussinesq problem is developed and the corresponding convergence results are presented. By this method, the original problem is decoupled into two small linear subproblems. Compared with the standard Galerkin method, the two‐level method not only keeps good accuracy but also saves a lot of computational cost. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to support the established theoretical analysis.     

Analysis and computational method based on quadratic B‐spline FEM for the Rosenau–Burgers equation

L_∞‐error estimates for B‐spline Galerkin finite element solution of the Rosenau–Burgers equation are considered. The semidiscrete B‐spline Galerkin scheme is studied using appropriate projections. For fully discrete B‐spline Galerkin scheme, we consider the Crank–Nicolson method and analyze the corresponding error estimates in time. Numerical experiments are given to demonstrate validity and order of accuracy of the proposed method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 877–895, 2016     

Monotone first‐order weighted schemes for scalar conservation laws

In this work, we present a monotone first‐order weighted (FORWE) method for scalar conservation laws using a variational formulation. We prove theoretical properties as consistency, monotonicity, and convergence of the proposed scheme for the one‐dimensional (1D) Cauchy problem. These convergence results are extended to multidimensional scalar conservation laws by a dimensional splitting technique. For the validation of the FORWE method, we consider some standard bench‐mark tests of bidimensional and 1D conservation law equations. Finally, we analyze the accuracy of the method with L¹ and L^∞ error estimates. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

Mortar element methods for parabolic problems

In this article a standard mortar finite element method and a mortar element method with Lagrange multiplier are used for spatial discretization of a class of parabolic initial‐boundary value problems. Optimal error estimates in L^∞(L²) and L^∞(H¹)‐norms for semidiscrete methods for both the cases are established. The key feature that we have adopted here is to introduce a modified elliptic projection. In the standard mortar element method, a completely discrete scheme using backward Euler scheme is discussed and optimal error estimates are derived. The results of numerical experiments support the theoretical results obtained in this article. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2008     

Combination of standard Galerkin and subspace methods for the time‐dependent Navier‐Stokes equations with nonsmooth initial data

We consider a combination of the standard Galerkin method and the subspace decomposition methods for the numerical solution of the two‐dimensional time‐dependent incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations with nonsmooth initial data. Because of the poor smoothness of the solution near t = 0, we use the standard Galerkin method for time interval [0, 1] and the subspace decomposition method time interval [1, ∞). The subspace decomposition method is based on the solution into the sum of a low frequency component integrated using a small time step Δt and a high frequency integrated using a larger time step pΔt with p > 1. From the H¹‐stability and L²‐error analysis, we show that the subspace decomposition method can yield a significant gain in computing time. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2009     

A new alternating‐direction finite element method for hyperbolic equation

A modified backward difference time discretization is presented for Galerkin approximations for nonlinear hyperbolic equation in two space variables. This procedure uses a local approximation of the coefficients based on patches of finite elements with these procedures, a multidimensional problem can be solved as a series of one‐dimensional problems. Optimal order H₀¹ and L² error estimates are derived. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2007     

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.     

A CFL‐free explicit characteristic interior penalty scheme for linear advection‐reaction equations

We develop a CFL‐free, explicit characteristic interior penalty scheme (CHIPS) for one‐dimensional first‐order advection‐reaction equations by combining a Eulerian‐Lagrangian approach with a discontinuous Galerkin framework. The CHIPS method retains the numerical advantages of the discontinuous Galerkin methods as well as characteristic methods. An optimal‐order error estimate in the L² norm for the CHIPS method is derived and numerical experiments are presented to confirm the theoretical estimates. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2010     

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     

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     

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.     

A fourth‐order H1‐Galerkin mixed finite element method for Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation

A H¹‐Galerkin mixed finite element method is applied to the Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation by using a splitting technique, which results in a coupled system. The method described in this article may also be considered as a Petrov–Galerkin method with cubic spline space as trial space and piecewise linear space as test space, since the second derivative of a cubic spline is a linear spline. Optimal‐order error estimates are obtained without any restriction on the mesh for both semi‐discrete and fully discrete schemes. The advantage of this method over that presented in Manickam et al., Comput. Math. Appl. vol. 35(6) (1998) pp. 5–25; for the same problem is that the size (i.e., (n + 1) × (n + 1)) of each resulting linear system is less than half of the size of the linear system of the earlier method, where n is the number of subintervals in the partition. Further, there is a requirement of less regularity on exact solution in this method. The results are validated with numerical examples. Finally, instability behavior of the solution is numerically captured with this method.     

A Petrov–Galerkin spectral method for fourth‐order problems

In this paper, we consider the Petrov–Galerkin spectral method for fourth‐order elliptic problems on rectangular domains subject to non‐homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. We derive some sharp results on the orthogonal approximations in one and two dimensions, which play important roles in numerical solutions of higher‐order problems. By applying these results to a fourth‐order problem, we establish the H²‐error and L²‐error bounds of the Petrov–Galerkin spectral method. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the high accuracy of the proposed method and coincide well with the theoretical analysis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Riesz–Feller space‐fractional backward diffusion problem with a time‐dependent coefficient: regularization and error estimates

In this paper, we consider a Riesz–Feller space‐fractional backward diffusion problem with a time‐dependent coefficient We show that this problem is ill‐posed; therefore, we propose a convolution regularization method to solve it. New error estimates for the regularized solution are given under a priori and a posteriori parameter choice rules, respectively. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

TV‐like regularization for backward parabolic problems

This paper investigates an inverse problem for parabolic equations backward in time, which is solved by total‐variation‐like (TV‐like, in abbreviation) regularization method with cost function ∥u_x∥². The existence, uniqueness and stability estimate for the regularization problem are deduced in the linear case. For numerical illustration, the variational adjoint method, which presents a simple method to derive the gradient of the optimization functional, is introduced to reconstruct the unknown initial condition for both linear and nonlinear parabolic equations. The conjugate gradient method is used to iteratively search for the optimal approximation. Numerical results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Finite element approximations with quadrature for second‐order hyperbolic equations

In this article, the effect of numerical quadrature on the finite element Galerkin approximations to the solution of hyperbolic equations has been studied. Both semidiscrete and fully discrete schemes are analyzed and optimal estimates are derived in the L^∞(H¹), L^∞(L²) norms, whereas quasi‐optimal estimate is derived in the L^∞(L^∞) norm using energy methods. The analysis in the present paper improves upon the earlier results of Baker and Dougalis [SIAM J Numer Anal 13 (1976), pp 577–598] under the minimum smoothness assumptions of Rauch [SIAM J Numer Anal 22 (1985), pp 245–249] for a purely second‐order hyperbolic equation with quadrature. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 537–559, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/num.10022     

Analysis of a combined mixed finite element and discontinuous Galerkin method for incompressible two‐phase flow in porous media

We analyze a combined method consisting of the mixed finite element method for pressure equation and the discontinuous Galerkin method for saturation equation for the coupled system of incompressible two‐phase flow in porous media. The existence and uniqueness of numerical solutions are established under proper conditions by using a constructive approach. Optimal error estimates in L²(H¹) for saturation and in L ^∞ (H(div)) for velocity are derived. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

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