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.     

Superconvergence of a two‐grid method for fourth‐order dispersive‐dissipative wave equations

In this paper, the superconvergence analysis of a two‐grid method (TGM) with low‐order finite elements is presented for the fourth‐order dispersive‐dissipative wave equations for a second order fully discrete scheme. The superclose estimates in the H¹‐norm on the two grids are obtained by the combination technique of the interpolation and Ritz projection. Then, with the help of the interpolated postprocessing technique, the global superconvergence properties are deduced. Finally, numerical results are provided to show the performance of the proposed TGM for conforming bilinear element and nonconforming element, respectively. It shows that the TGM is an effective method to the problem considered of our paper compared with the traditional Galerkin finite element method (FEM).     

Superconvergent estimates of conforming finite element method for nonlinear time‐dependent Joule heating equations

In this article, we study the superconvergence analysis of conforming bilinear finite element method (FEM) for nonlinear Joule heating equations. Based on the rigorous estimates together with high accuracy analysis of this element, mean value technique and interpolation postprocessing approach, the superclose and superconvergent estimates about the related variables in H¹‐norm are derived for semidiscrete and a linearized backward Euler fully discrete schemes, which extends the results of optimal estimates obtained for conforming FEMs in the previous literature. At last, a numerical experiment is performed to verify the theoretical analysis.     

Finite element method for two‐dimensional time‐fractional tricomi‐type equations

In this article, we consider the finite element method (FEM) for two‐dimensional linear time‐fractional Tricomi‐type equations, which is obtained from the standard two‐dimensional linear Tricomi‐type equation by replacing the first‐order time derivative with a fractional derivative (of order α, with 1 <α< 2 ). The method is based on finite element method for space and finite difference method for time. We prove that the method is unconditionally stable, and the error estimate is presented. The comparison of the FEM results with the exact solutions is made, and numerical experiments reveal that the FEM is very effective. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2013     

Error estimates for finite element approximations of nonlinear monotone elliptic problems with application to numerical homogenization

We consider a finite element method (FEM) with arbitrary polynomial degree for nonlinear monotone elliptic problems. Using a linear elliptic projection, we first give a new short proof of the optimal convergence rate of the FEM in the L² norm. We then derive optimal a priori error estimates in the H¹ and L² norm for a FEM with variational crimes due to numerical integration. As an application, we derive a priori error estimates for a numerical homogenization method applied to nonlinear monotone elliptic problems. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 955–969, 2016     

A meshless scaling iterative algorithm based on compactly supported radial basis functions for the numerical solution of Lane‐Emden‐Fowler equation

In this article, we combine the compactly supported radial basis function (RBF) collocation method and the scaling iterative algorithm to compute and visualize the multiple solutions of the Lane‐Emden‐Fowler equation on a bounded domain Ω ? R² with a homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition. This novel method has the advantage over traditional methods, which approximate the spatial derivatives using either the finite difference method (FDM), the finite element method (FEM), or the boundary element method (BEM), because it does not require a mesh over the domain. As a result, it needs less computational time than the globally supported RBF collocation method. When compared with the reference solutions in (Chen, Zhou, and Ni, Int J Bifurcation Chaos 10 (2000), 565–1612), our numerical results demonstrate the accuracy and ease of implementation of this method. It is therefore much more suitable for dealing with the complex domains than the FEM, the FDM, and the BEM. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 28: 554‐572, 2012     

Semi‐analytical integration of the 8‐node plane element stiffness matrix using symbolic computation

The semi‐analytical integration of an 8‐node plane strain finite element stiffness matrix is presented in this work. The element is assumed to be super‐parametric, having straight sides. Before carrying out the integration, the integral expressions are classified into several groups, thus avoiding duplication of calculations. Symbolic manipulation and integration is used to obtain the basic formulae to evaluate the stiffness matrix. Then, the resulting expressions are postprocessed, optimized, and simplified in order to reduce the computation time. Maple symbolic‐manipulation software was used to generate the closed expressions and to develop the corresponding Fortran code. Comparisons between semi‐analytical integration and numerical integration were made. It was demonstrated that semi‐analytical integration required less CPU time than conventional numerical integration (using Gaussian‐Legendre quadrature) to obtain the stiffness matrix. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2006     

FLIM - A Variant of FEM based on Line Integration

A variant of the finite element method (FEM) for modelling and solving partial differential equations based on triangular and tetrahedral meshes is proposed. While FEM is based on integration over finite elements, the new approach - briefly denoted as FLIM hereafter - uses integration along edges (finite lines). The stiffness matrix, which - for linear triangles and tetrahedra - is identical with the one obtained with FEM, as well as the load vector can solely be obtained by summing up the edge contributions. This new variant requires much lower storage than FEM, especially for three-dimensional problems, but yields the same approximation error and convergence rate as the finite element method. It is shown that its performance, when applied to linear problems, is in close agreement with the performance of the finite element method. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

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.     

Convergence analysis of a vertex‐centered finite volume scheme for a copper heap leaching model

In this paper a two‐dimensional solute transport model is considered to simulate the leaching of copper ore tailing using sulfuric acid as the leaching agent. The mathematical model consists in a system of differential equations: two diffusion–convection‐reaction equations with Neumann boundary conditions, and one ordinary differential equation. The numerical scheme consists in a combination of finite volume and finite element methods. A Godunov scheme is used for the convection term and an P1‐FEM for the diffusion term. The convergence analysis is based on standard compactness results in L². Some numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the scheme. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decoupled two‐grid finite element method for the time‐dependent natural convection problem I: Spatial discretization

In this article, a decoupled two grid finite element method (FEM) is proposed and analyzed for the nonsteady natural convection problem using the coarse grid numerical solutions to decouple the nonlinear coupled terms, and the corresponding optimal error estimates are derived. Compared with the standard Galerkin FEM and the usual two‐grid FEM, our algorithm not only keeps good accuracy but also saves a lot of computational cost. Some numerical examples are provided to verify the performances of the decoupled two‐grid FEM. Both theoretical analysis and numerical experiments show the efficiency and effectiveness of the decoupled two‐grid FEM for the nonsteady natural convection problem. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 2135–2168, 2015     

Two grid finite element discretization method for semi‐linear hyperbolic integro‐differential equations

In this paper, we will investigate a two grid finite element discretization method for the semi‐linear hyperbolic integro‐differential equations by piecewise continuous finite element method. In order to deal with the semi‐linearity of the model, we use the two grid technique and derive that once the coarse and fine mesh sizes H, h satisfy the relation h = H² for the two‐step two grid discretization method, the two grid method achieves the same convergence accuracy as the ordinary finite element method. Both theoretical analysis and numerical experiments are given to verify the results.     

Finite element method for Grwünwald–Letnikov time-fractional partial differential equation

In this article, we consider the finite element methods (FEM) for Grwünwald–Letnikov time-fractional diffusion equation, which is obtained from the standard two-dimensional diffusion equation by replacing the first-order time derivative with a fractional derivative (of order α, with 0?h ^r+1?+?τ^2-α), where h, τ and r are the space step size, time step size and polynomial degree, respectively. A numerical example is presented to verify the order of convergence.     

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.     

B-spline based finite element method in one-dimensional discontinuous elastic wave propagation

The B-spline variant of the finite element method (FEM) is tested in one-dimensional discontinuous elastic wave propagation. The B-spline based FEM (called Isogeometric analysis IGA) uses spline functions as testing and shape functions in the Galerkin continuous content. Here, the accuracy of stress distribution and spurious oscillations of the B-spline based FEM are studied in numerical modeling of one-dimensional propagation of stress discontinuities in a bar, where the analytical solution is known. For time integration, the Newmark method, implicit form of the generalized-α method, the central difference method and the predictor/multi-corrector method are tested and compared. The use of lumped and consistent mass matrices in explicit time integration is discussed. Due to accuracy, the consistent mass matrix is preferred in explicit time integration in IGA.     

BEM‐FEM coupling for the 1D Klein–Gordon equation

A transmission (bidomain) problem for the one‐dimensional Klein–Gordon equation on an unbounded interval is numerically solved by a boundary element method‐finite element method (BEM‐FEM) coupling procedure. We prove stability and convergence of the proposed method by means of energy arguments. Several numerical results are presented, confirming theoretical results. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 2042–2082, 2014     

H1‐Galerkin expanded mixed finite element methods for nonlinear pseudo‐parabolic integro‐differential equations

H¹‐Galerkin mixed finite element method combined with expanded mixed element method is discussed for nonlinear pseudo‐parabolic integro‐differential equations. We conduct theoretical analysis to study the existence and uniqueness of numerical solutions to the discrete scheme. A priori error estimates are derived for the unknown function, gradient function, and flux. Numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

Spectral meshless radial point interpolation (SMRPI) method to two‐dimensional fractional telegraph equation

H. Ammari In this article, an innovative technique so‐called spectral meshless radial point interpolation (SMRPI) method is proposed and, as a test problem, is applied to a classical type of two‐dimensional time‐fractional telegraph equation defined by Caputo sense for (1 < α≤2). This new methods is based on meshless methods and benefits from spectral collocation ideas, but it does not belong to traditional meshless collocation methods. The point interpolation method with the help of radial basis functions is used to construct shape functions, which play as basis functions in the frame of SMRPI method. These basis functions have Kronecker delta function property. Evaluation of high‐order derivatives is not difficult by constructing operational matrices. In SMRPI method, it does not require any kind of integration locally or globally over small quadrature domains, which is essential of the finite element method (FEM) and those meshless methods based on Galerkin weak form. Also, it is not needed to determine strict value for the shape parameter, which plays an important role in collocation method based on the radial basis functions (Kansa's method). Therefore, computational costs of SMRPI method are less expensive. Two numerical examples are presented to show that SMRPI method has reliable rates of convergence. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

An optimal‐order error estimate on an H1‐Galerkin mixed method for a nonlinear parabolic equation in porous medium flow

We present an H¹‐Galerkin mixed finite element method for a nonlinear parabolic equation, which models a compressible fluid flow process in subsurface porous media. The method possesses the advantages of mixed finite element methods while avoiding directly inverting the permeability tensor, which is important especially in a low permeability zone. We conducted theoretical analysis to study the existence and uniqueness of the numerical solutions of the scheme and prove an optimal‐order error estimate for the method. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2010