A meshfree numerical method for acoustic wave propagation problems in planar domains with corners and cracks

The numerical solution of acoustic wave propagation problems in planar domains with corners and cracks is considered. Since the exact solution of such problems is singular in the neighborhood of the geometric singularities the standard meshfree methods, based on global interpolation by analytic functions, show low accuracy. In order to circumvent this issue, a meshfree modification of the method of fundamental solutions is developed, where the approximation basis is enriched by an extra span of corner adapted non-smooth shape functions. The high accuracy of the new method is illustrated by solving several boundary value problems for the Helmholtz equation, modelling physical phenomena from the fields of room acoustics and acoustic resonance.     

Residual reduction algorithms for nonsymmetric saddle point problems

In this paper, we introduce and analyze Uzawa algorithms for non-symmetric saddle point systems. Convergence for the algorithms is established based on new spectral results about Schur complements. A new Uzawa type algorithm with optimal relaxation parameters at each new iteration is introduced and analyzed in a general framework. Numerical results supporting the efficiency of the algorithms are presented for finite element discretization of steady state Navier-Stokes equations.     

Linear and bilinear immersed finite elements for planar elasticity interface problems

This article is to discuss the linear (which was proposed in  and ) and bilinear immersed finite element (IFE) methods for solving planar elasticity interface problems with structured Cartesian meshes. Basic features of linear and bilinear IFE functions, including the unisolvent property, will be discussed. While both methods have comparable accuracy, the bilinear IFE method requires less time for assembling its algebraic system. Our analysis further indicates that the bilinear IFE functions are guaranteed to be applicable to a larger class of elasticity interface problems than linear IFE functions. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate that both linear and bilinear IFE spaces have the optimal approximation capability, and that numerical solutions produced by a Galerkin method with these IFE functions for elasticity interface problem also converge optimally in both L²$L^2$ and semi-H¹$H^1$ norms.     

An analytic series method for Laplacian problems with mixed boundary conditions

Mixed boundary value problems are characterised by a combination of Dirichlet and Neumann conditions along at least one boundary. Historically, only a very small subset of these problems could be solved using analytic series methods (“analytic” is taken here to mean a series whose terms are analytic in the complex plane). In the past, series solutions were obtained by using an appropriate choice of axes, or a co-ordinate transformation to suitable axes where the boundaries are parallel to the abscissa and the boundary conditions are separated into pure Dirichlet or Neumann form. In this paper, I will consider the more general problem where the mixed boundary conditions cannot be resolved by a co-ordinate transformation. That is, a Dirichlet condition applies on part of the boundary and a Neumann condition applies along the remaining section. I will present a general method for obtaining analytic series solutions for the classic problem where the boundary is parallel to the abscissa. In addition, I will extend this technique to the general mixed boundary value problem, defined on an arbitrary boundary, where the boundary is not parallel to the abscissa. I will demonstrate the efficacy of the method on a well known seepage problem.     

Relaxed Dirichlet problem and shape optimization within the linear elasticity framework

This work is mainly motivated by the study of shape optimization problems within the linear elastic framework and posed in general variable subdomains of a domain of or 3. We precisely study the sets of measures which can be obtained through the relaxed optimization process. The case of an homogeneous and isotropic elastic material is specially emphasized.     

Existence of minimizers for a polyconvex energy in a crystal with dislocations

We provide existence theorems in nonlinear elasticity for minimum problems modeling the deformations of a crystal with a given dislocation. A key technical difficulty is that due to the presence of a the dislocation the elastic deformation gradient cannot be in L ². Thus one needs to consider elastic energies with slow growth, to which the original results of Ball cannot be applied directly.     

An augmented mixed finite element method for 3D linear elasticity problems

In this paper we introduce and analyze a new augmented mixed finite element method for linear elasticity problems in 3D. Our approach is an extension of a technique developed recently for plane elasticity, which is based on the introduction of consistent terms of Galerkin least-squares type. We consider non-homogeneous and homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions and prove that the resulting augmented variational formulations lead to strongly coercive bilinear forms. In this way, the associated Galerkin schemes become well posed for arbitrary choices of the corresponding finite element subspaces. In particular, Raviart-Thomas spaces of order 0 for the stress tensor, continuous piecewise linear elements for the displacement, and piecewise constants for the rotation can be utilized. Moreover, we show that in this case the number of unknowns behaves approximately as 9.5 times the number of elements (tetrahedrons) of the triangulation, which is cheaper, by a factor of 3, than the classical PEERS in 3D. Several numerical results illustrating the good performance of the augmented schemes are provided.     

Existence and approximation results for nonlinear mixed problems: Application to incompressible finite elasticity

Summary This paper considers the problems of minimizing Gateaux-differentiable functionals over subsets of real Banach spaces defined by a non-linear equality constraint. The existence of a Lagrange multiplier is proved, together with approximation results on the constrained subset, provided a nonlinear compatibility condition, generalizing the classical inf-sup condition, is satisfied. These ideas are applied to equilibrium problems in incompressible finite elasticity and lead to convergence results for these problems.     

Schur complements on Hilbert spaces and saddle point systems

For any continuous bilinear form defined on a pair of Hilbert spaces satisfying the compatibility Ladyshenskaya–Babušca–Brezzi condition, symmetric Schur complement operators can be defined on each of the two Hilbert spaces. In this paper, we find bounds for the spectrum of the Schur operators only in terms of the compatibility and continuity constants. In light of the new spectral results for the Schur complements, we review the classical Babušca–Brezzi theory, find sharp stability estimates, and improve a convergence result for the inexact Uzawa algorithm. We prove that for any symmetric saddle point problem, the inexact Uzawa algorithm converges, provided that the inexact process for inverting the residual at each step has the relative error smaller than 1/3. As a consequence, we provide a new type of algorithm for discretizing saddle point problems, which combines the inexact Uzawa iterations with standard a posteriori error analysis and does not require the discrete stability conditions.     

Convergence and optimization of the parallel method of simultaneous directions for the solution of elliptic problems

For the solution of elliptic problems, fractional step methods and in particular alternating directions (ADI) methods are iterative methods where fractional steps are sequential. Therefore, they only accept parallelization at low level. In [T. Lu, P. Neittaanmäki, X.C. Tai, A parallel splitting-up method for partial differential equations and its applications to Navier–Stokes equations, RAIRO Modél. Math. Anal. Numér. 26 (6) (1992) 673–708], Lu et al. proposed a method where the fractional steps can be performed in parallel. We can thus speak of parallel fractional step (PFS) methods and, in particular, simultaneous directions (SDI) methods. In this paper, we perform a detailed analysis of the convergence and optimization of PFS and SDI methods, complementing what was done in [T. Lu, P. Neittaanmäki, X.C. Tai, A parallel splitting-up method for partial differential equations and its applications to Navier–Stokes equations, RAIRO Modél. Math. Anal. Numér. 26 (6) (1992) 673–708]. We describe the behavior of the method and we specify the good choice of the parameters. We also study the efficiency of the parallelization. Some 2D, 3D and high-dimensional tests confirm our results.     

Hybrid cross approximation of integral operators

The efficient treatment of dense matrices arising, e.g., from the finite element discretisation of integral operators requires special compression techniques. In this article we use the -matrix representation that approximates the dense stiffness matrix in admissible blocks (corresponding to subdomains where the underlying kernel function is smooth) by low-rank matrices. The low-rank matrices are assembled by a new hybrid algorithm (HCA) that has the same proven convergence as standard interpolation but also the same efficiency as the (heuristic) adaptive cross approximation (ACA).     

Gradient estimates for Dirichlet parabolic problems in unbounded domains

We consider autonomous parabolic Dirichlet problems in a regular unbounded open set Ω⊂R^N involving second-order operator A with (possibly) unbounded coefficients. We determine new conditions on the coefficients of A yielding global gradient estimates for the bounded classical solution.     

Multiplicity results for quasi-linear problems

Applying the minimax arguments and Morse theory, we establish some results on the existence of multiple nontrivial solutions for a class of p$p$-Laplacian elliptic equations.     

Solvability and continuous dependence results for second order nonlinear evolution inclusions with a Volterra-type operator

The paper deals with second order nonlinear evolution inclusions and their applications. We study evolution inclusions involving a Volterra-type integral operator, which are considered within the framework of an evolution triple of spaces. First, we deliver a result on the unique solvability of the Cauchy problem for the inclusion by combining a surjectivity result for multivalued pseudomonotone operators and the Banach contraction principle. Next, we provide a theorem on the continuous dependence of the solution to the inclusion with respect to the operators involved in the problem. Finally, we consider a dynamic frictional contact problem of viscoelasticity for materials with long memory and indicate how the result on evolution inclusion is applicable to the model of the contact problem.     

A posteriori dual-mixed adaptive finite element error control for Lamé and Stokes equations

A unified and robust mathematical model for compressible and incompressible linear elasticity can be obtained by rephrasing the Herrmann formulation within the Hellinger-Reissner principle. This quasi-optimally converging extension of PEERS (Plane Elasticity Element with Reduced Symmetry) is called Dual-Mixed Hybrid formulation (DMH). Explicit residual-based a posteriori error estimates for DMH are introduced and are mathematically shown to be locking-free, reliable, and efficient. The estimator serves as a refinement indicator in an adaptive algorithm for effective automatic mesh generation. Numerical evidence supports that the adaptive scheme leads to optimal convergence for Lamé and Stokes benchmark problems with singularities.     

Existence results for some Kirchhoff-Carrier problems

Analyzing the viscoelastic problem for small vibrations of elastic strings, Kirchhoff and Carrier proposed two different models of nonlinear partial differential equations. By combining these two models, we deal here with some nonlocal hyperbolic problems that cover a large class of Kirchhoff and Carrier type problems. The existence of local solutions of degenerate problems as well as local and nonlocal solutions of nondegenerate problems is established. The proofs are based on the combination of the Schauder fixed point theorem with some asymptotic method.     

A priori and a posteriori error analyses in the study of viscoelastic problems

In this work, the numerical approximation of a viscoelastic problem is studied. A fully discrete scheme is introduced by using the finite element method to approximate the spatial variable and an Euler scheme to discretize time derivatives. Then, two numerical analyses are presented. First, a priori estimates are proved from which the linear convergence of the algorithm is derived under suitable regularity conditions. Secondly, an a posteriori error analysis is provided extending some preliminary results obtained in the study of the heat equation. Upper and lower error bounds are obtained.     

Weighted iterative solutions of linear differential equations and heat conduction of ideal gases in moment theory

An iterative method is proposed to find a particular solution of a system of linear differential equations, in the form of a fixed-point problem, with no boundary conditions. To circumvent the unboundedness of differential operators, iterative approximation with gradually decreasing weight is used. Conditions for convergence that can easily be checked in numerical iterations are established. Furthermore, for the numerical iterative scheme, uniqueness and stability theorems are proved. These results are applied to heat conduction of ideal gases in moment theory.     

The combined effect of numerical integration and approximation of the boundary in the finite element method for eigenvalue problems

Summary. The paper deals with the finite element analysis of second order elliptic eigenvalue problems when the approximate domains are not subdomains of the original domain and when at the same time numerical integration is used for computing the involved bilinear forms. The considerations are restricted to piecewise linear approximations. The optimum rate of convergence for approximate eigenvalues is obtained provided that a quadrature formula of first degree of precision is used. In the case of a simple exact eigenvalue the optimum rate of convergence for approximate eigenfunctions in the -norm is proved while in the -norm an almost optimum rate of convergence (i.e. near to is achieved. In both cases a quadrature formula of first degree of precision is used. Quadrature formulas with degree of precision equal to zero are also analyzed and in the case when the exact eigenfunctions belong only to the convergence without the rate of convergence is proved. In the case of a multiple exact eigenvalue the approximate eigenfunctions are compard (in contrast to standard considerations) with linear combinations of exact eigenfunctions with coefficients not depending on the mesh parameter . Received September 18, 1993 / Revised version received September 26, 1994     

Static condensation,partial orthogonalization of basis functions,and ILU preconditioning in the hp-FEM

Static condensation of internal degrees of freedom, partial orthogonalization of basis functions, and ILU preconditioning are techniques used to facilitate the solution of discrete problems obtained in the hp-FEM. This paper shows that for symmetric linear (not necessarily positive-definite) problems, under mild technical assumptions, these three techniques are completely equivalent. In fact, the same matrices can be obtained by the same arithmetic operations. The study can be extended to nonsymmetric problems naturally.