Error estimates for mixed finite element discretization of the Richards equation

We present a numerical scheme based on the mixed finite element method (MFEM) for the Richards equation, a nonlinear, degenerate parabolic equation. Due to the degeneracy, the solution of the equation has low regularity and therefore only lower order finite elements are recommended. We review the main posibilities for proving the convergence of the scheme. Especially for the case without using the Kirchhoff transformation a new result is given. We also briefly discuss how to solve the nonlinear fully discrete problems appearing at each time step and refer to papers where the convergence of these methods is rigurously studied. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Error estimates for the finite volume discretization for the porous medium equation

We analyze the convergence of a numerical scheme for a class of degenerate parabolic problems modelling reactions in porous media, and involving a nonlinear, possibly vanishing diffusion. The scheme involves the Kirchhoff transformation of the regularized nonlinearity, as well as an Euler implicit time stepping and triangle based finite volumes. We prove the convergence of the approach by giving error estimates in terms of the discretization and regularization parameter.     

Error estimates for a mixed finite element discretization of some degenerate parabolic equations

We consider a numerical scheme for a class of degenerate parabolic equations, including both slow and fast diffusion cases. A particular example in this sense is the Richards equation modeling the flow in porous media. The numerical scheme is based on the mixed finite element method (MFEM) in space, and is of one step implicit in time. The lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements are used. Here we extend the results in Radu et al. (SIAM J Numer Anal 42:1452–1478, 2004), Schneid et al. (Numer Math 98:353–370, 2004) to a more general framework, by allowing for both types of degeneracies. We derive error estimates in terms of the discretization parameters and show the convergence of the scheme. The features of the MFEM, especially of the lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements, are now fully exploited in the proof of the convergence. The paper is concluded by numerical examples.     

Error estimates for mixed finite element approximations of the viscoelasticity wave equation

This paper studies mixed finite element approximations to the solution of the viscoelasticity wave equation. Two new transformations are introduced and a corresponding system of first‐order differential‐integral equations is derived. The semi‐discrete and full‐discrete mixed finite element methods are then proposed for the problem based on the Raviart–Thomas–Nedelec spaces. The optimal error estimates in L²‐norm are obtained for the semi‐discrete and full‐discrete mixed approximations of the general viscoelasticity wave equation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Error analysis of a mixed finite element method for the Cahn-Hilliard equation

Summary. We propose and analyze a semi-discrete and a fully discrete mixed finite element method for the Cahn-Hilliard equation u_t + (u–^–1f(u)) = 0, where > 0 is a small parameter. Error estimates which are quasi-optimal order in time and optimal order in space are shown for the proposed methods under minimum regularity assumptions on the initial data and the domain. In particular, it is shown that all error bounds depend on only in some lower polynomial order for small . The cruxes of our analysis are to establish stability estimates for the discrete solutions, to use a spectrum estimate result of Alikakos and Fusco [2], and Chen [15] to prove a discrete counterpart of it for a linearized Cahn-Hilliard operator to handle the nonlinear term on a stretched time grid. The ideas and techniques developed in this paper also enable us to prove convergence of the fully discrete finite element solution to the solution of the Hele-Shaw (Mullins-Sekerka) problem as 0 in [29].Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 65M60, 65M12, 65M15, 35B25, 35K57, 35Q99, 53A10Acknowledgments. The first author would like to thank Nicholas Alikakos for explaining all the fascinating properties of the Allen-Cahn and Cahn-Hilliard equations to him. He would also like to thank Nicholas Alikakos and Xinfu Chen for answering his questions regarding the spectrum estimate in Proposition 1. The second author gratefully acknowledges financial support by the DFG.     

Time discretization of an evolution equation via Laplace transforms

Following earlier work by Sheen, Sloan, and Thomée concerningparabolic equations we study the discretization in time of aVolterra type integro-differential equation in which the integraloperator is a convolution of a weakly singular function andan elliptic differential operator in space. The time discretizationis accomplished by using a modified Laplace transform in timeto represent the solution as an integral along a smooth curveextending into the left half of the complex plane, which isthen evaluated by quadrature. This reduces the problem to afinite set of elliptic equations with complex coefficients,which may be solved in parallel. Stability and error boundsof high order are derived for two different choices of the quadraturerule. The method is combined with finite-element discretizationin the spatial variables.     

A new minimization protocol for solving nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann mortar finite element equation

The nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann equation (PBE) is a widely-used implicit solvent model in biomolecular simulations. This paper formulates a new PBE nonlinear algebraic system from a mortar finite element approximation, and proposes a new minimization protocol to solve it efficiently. In particular, the PBE mortar nonlinear algebraic system is proved to have a unique solution, and is equivalent to a unconstrained minimization problem. It is then solved as the unconstrained minimization problem by the subspace trust region Newton method. Numerical results show that the new minimization protocol is more efficient than the traditional merit least squares approach in solving the nonlinear system. At least 80 percent of the total CPU time was saved for a PBE model problem. AMS subject classification (2000)  65N30, 65H10, 65K10, 92-08     

Schwarz preconditioned CG algorithm for the mortar finite element

We propose a simple and effective hybrid (multiplicative) Schwarz precondtioner for solving systems of algebraic equations resulting from the mortar finite element discretization of second order elliptic problems on nonmatching meshes. The preconditioner is embedded in a variant of the classical preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) for an effective implementation reducing the cost of computing the matrix-vector multiplication in each iteration of the PCG. In fact, it serves as a framework for effective implementation of a class of hybrid Schwarz preconditioners. The preconditioners of this class are based on solving a sequence of non-overlapping local subproblems exactly, and the coarse problems either exactly or inexactly (approximately). The classical PCG algorithm is reformulated in order to make reuse of the results of matrix-vector multiplications that are already available from the preconditioning step resulting in an algorithm which is cost effective. An analysis of the proposed preconditioner, with numerical results, showing scalability with respect to the number of subdomains, and a convergence which is independent of the jumps of the coefficients are given.     

Error estimates of H^1-Galerkin mixed finite element method for Schrodinger equation

An H1-Galerkin mixed finite element method is discussed for a class of second order SchrSdinger equation. Optimal error estimates of semidiscrete schemes are derived for problems in one space dimension. At the same time, optimal error estimates are derived for fully discrete schemes. And it is showed that the H1-Galerkin mixed finite element approximations have the same rate of convergence as in the classical mixed finite element methods without requiring the LBB consistency condition.     

A monolithic finite element discretization for coupled Darcy-Stokes flow

We consider a Stokes system and a Darcy system in a porous media, mutually coupled together by the the well-known Beaver-Joseph-Saffman interface conditions. Standard approaches use different finite elements in the two parts in order to account for the different stability properties of the two equation systems. In contrast to this, we use standard equal-order finite elements in both parts. Stability is obtained by adding local projection terms (LPS) to the Galerkin formulation. We formulate the scheme and give an a priori estimate. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A fast discontinuous finite element discretization for the space‐time fractional diffusion‐wave equation

In this article, we study fast discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods to solve a space‐time fractional diffusion‐wave equation. We introduce a piecewise‐constant discontinuous finite element method for solving this problem and derive optimal error estimates. Importantly, a fast solution technique to accelerate Toeplitz matrix‐vector multiplications which arise from discontinuous Galerkin finite element discretization is developed. This fast solution technique is based on fast Fourier transform and it depends on the special structure of coefficient matrices. In each temporal step, it helps to reduce the computational work from required by the traditional methods to log , where is the size of the coefficient matrices (number of spatial grid points). Moreover, the applicability and accuracy of the method are verified by numerical experiments including both continuous and discontinuous examples to support our theoretical analysis.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 2043–2061, 2017     

Error estimates for a finite element-finite volume discretization of convection-diffusion equations

We consider a time-dependent linear convection-diffusion equation. This equation is approximated by a combined finite element-finite volume method: the diffusion term is discretized by Crouzeix-Raviart piecewise linear finite elements, and the convection term by upwind barycentric finite volumes on a triangular grid. An implicit Euler approach is used for time discretization. It is shown that the error associated with this scheme, measured by a discrete L^∞-L²- and L²-H¹-norm, respectively, decays linearly with the mesh size and the time step. This result holds without any link between mesh size and time step. The dependence of the corresponding error bound on the diffusion coefficient is completely explicit.     

Time discretization via Laplace transformation of an integro-differential equation of parabolic type

We consider the discretization in time of an inhomogeneous parabolic integro-differential equation, with a memory term of convolution type, in a Banach space setting. The method is based on representing the solution as an integral along a smooth curve in the complex plane which is evaluated to high accuracy by quadrature, using the approach in recent work of López-Fernández and Palencia. This reduces the problem to a finite set of elliptic equations with complex coefficients, which may be solved in parallel. The method is combined with finite element discretization in the spatial variables to yield a fully discrete method. The paper is a further development of earlier work by the authors, which on the one hand treated purely parabolic equations and, on the other, an evolution equation with a positive type memory term. The authors acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council.     

A finite element method for the Sivashinsky equation

The Sivashinsky equation is a nonlinear evolutionary equation of fourth order in space. In this paper we have analyzed a semidiscrete finite element method and completely discrete scheme based on the backward Euler method and Crank–Nicolson–Galerkin scheme. A linearized backward Euler method have been developed and error bounds are derived for an L² projection.     

Error estimates of H 1-Galerkin mixed finite element method for Schrödinger equation

An H^1-Galerkin mixed finite element method is discussed for a class of second order SchrSdinger equation. Optimal error estimates of semidiscrete schemes are derived for problems in one space dimension. At the same time, optimal error estimates are derived for fully discrete schemes. And it is showed that the H1-Galerkin mixed finite element approximations have the same rate of convergence as in the classical mixed finite element methods without requiring the LBB consistency condition.     

A Neumann–Neumann algorithm for a mortar finite element discretization of fourth‐order elliptic problems in 2D

Here we present and analyze a Neumann–Neumann algorithm for the mortar finite element discretization of elliptic fourth‐order problems with discontinuous coefficients. The fully parallel algorithm is analyzed using the abstract Schwarz framework, proving a convergence which is independent of the parameters of the problem, and depends only logarithmically on the ratio between the subdomain size and the mesh size.© 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

Error analysis of discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for optimal control problem governed by the transport equation

This article discusses a priori and a posteriori error estimates of discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for optimal control problem governed by the transport equation. We use variational discretization concept to discretize the control variable and discontinuous piecewise linear finite elements to approximate the state and costate variable. Based on the error estimates of discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the transport equation, we get a priori and a posteriori error estimates for the transport equation optimal control problem. Finally, two numerical experiments are carried out to confirm the theoretical analysis.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 1493–1512, 2017     

A residual based error estimator for mortar finite element discretizations

Summary. A residual based error estimator for the approximation of linear elliptic boundary value problems by nonconforming finite element methods is introduced and analyzed. In particular, we consider mortar finite element techniques restricting ourselves to geometrically conforming domain decomposition methods using P1 approximations in each subdomain. Additionally, a residual based error estimator for Crouzeix-Raviart elements of lowest order is presented and compared with the error estimator obtained in the more general mortar situation. It is shown that the computational effort of the error estimator can be considerably reduced if the special structure of the Lagrange multiplier is taken into account. Received July 18, 1997 / Revised version received July 27, 1998 / Published online September 7, 1999     

One time‐step finite element discretization of the equation of motion of two‐fluid flows

We discretize in space the equations obtained at each time step when discretizing in time a Navier‐Stokes system modelling the two‐dimensional flow in a horizontal pipe of two immiscible fluids with comparable densities, but very different viscosities. At each time step the system reduces to a generalized Stokes problem with nonstandard conditions at the boundary and at the interface between the two fluids. We discretize this system with the “mini‐element” and establish error estimates. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005