Computer-based proof of the existence of superconvergence points in the finite element method; superconvergence of the derivatives in finite element solutions of Laplace's,Poisson's,and the elasticity equations

In this article we address the problem of the existence of superconvergence points for finite element solutions of systems of linear elliptic equations. Our approach is quite different from all other studies of superconvergence. We prove that the existence of superconvergence points can be guaranteed by a numerical algorithm, which employs a finite number of operations (provided that there is no roundoff-error). By employing this approach, we can reproduce all known results on superconvergence of finite element solutions for linear elliptic problems and we can obtain many new results. Here, in particular, we address the problem of the superconvergence points for the gradient of finite element solutions of Laplace's and Poisson's equations and we show that the sets of superconvergence points are very different for these two cases. We also study the superconvergence of the components of the gradient of the displacement, the strain and stress for finite element solutions of the equations of elasticity. For Laplace's and Poisson's equations (resp. the equations of elasticity), we consider meshes of triangular as well as square elements of degree p, 1 ? p ? 7 (resp. 1 ? p ? 4). For the meshes of triangular elements we investigate the effect of the geometry of the mesh by considering four mesh patterns that typically occur in practical meshes, while in the case of square elements, we study the effect of the element type (tensor-product, serendipity, or other). © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Superconvergence for rectangular mixed finite elements

Summary In this paper we prove superconvergence error estimates for the vector variable for mixed finite element approximations of second order elliptic problems. For the rectangular finite elements of Raviart and Thomas [19] and for those of Brezzi et al. [4] we prove that the distance inL ² between the approximate solution and a projection of the exact one is of higher order than the error itself.This result is exploited to obtain superconvergence at Gaussian points and to construct higher order approximations by a local postprocessing.     

Nonconforming spline collocation methods in irregular domains

This article studies a class of nonconforming spline collocation methods for solving elliptic PDEs in an irregular region with either triangular or quadrilateral partition. In the methods, classical Gaussian points are used as matching points and the special quadrature points in a triangle or quadrilateral element are used as collocation points. The solution and its normal derivative are imposed to be continuous at the marching points. The authors present theoretically the existence and uniqueness of the numerical solution as well as the optimal error estimate in H¹‐norm for a spline collocation method with rectangular elements. Numerical results confirm the theoretical analysis and illustrate the high‐order accuracy and some superconvergence features of methods. Finally the authors apply the methods for solving two physical problems in compressible flow and linear elasticity, respectively. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2007     

Superconvergence of Solution Derivatives of the Shortley–Weller Difference Approximation to Elliptic Equations with Singularities Involving the Mixed Type of Boundary Conditions

This paper presents a superconvergence analysis for the Shortley–Weller finite difference approximation of second-order self-adjoint elliptic equations with unbounded derivatives on a polygonal domain with the mixed type of boundary conditions. In this analysis, we first formulate the method as a special finite element/volume method. We then analyze the convergence of the method in a finite element framework. An O(h ^1.5)-order superconvergence of the solution derivatives in a discrete H ¹ norm is obtained. Finally, numerical experiments are provided to support the theoretical convergence rate obtained.     

Natural and postprocessed superconvergence in semilinear problems

Superconvergence error estimates are established for a class of semilinear problems defined by a linear elliptic operator with a nonlinear forcing term. The analysis is for rectangular biquadratic elements, and we prove superconvergence of the derivative components along associated lines through the Gauss points. Derivative postprocessing formula and formulas for integrals are also considered and similar superconvergence estimates proven.     

Superconvergence of finite volume element method for a nonlinear elliptic problem

In this article, we consider the finite volume element method for the second‐order nonlinear elliptic problem and obtain the H¹ and W^1,∞ superconvergence estimates between the solution of the finite volume element method and that of the finite element method, which reveal that the finite volume element method is in close relationship with the finite element method. With these superconvergence estimates, we establish the L^p and W^1,p (2 < p ≤ ∞) error estimates for the finite volume element method for the second‐order nonlinear elliptic problem. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2007     

Generalized Solutions of Nonlocal Elliptic Problems

An elliptic equation of order 2m with general nonlocal boundary-value conditions, in a plane bounded domain G with piecewise smooth boundary, is considered. Generalized solutions belonging to the Sobolev space W ₂ ^m (G) are studied. The Fredholm property of the unbounded operator (corresponding to the elliptic equation) acting on L ₂(G), and defined for functions from the space W ₂ ^m (G) that satisfy homogeneous nonlocal conditions, is established.__________Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, vol. 77, no. 5, 2005, pp. 665–682.Original Russian Text Copyright ©2005 by P. L. Gurevich.     

Solution of boundary-value problems for elliptic equations in the space of distributions

We extend the well-known approach to solution of generalized boundary-value problems for second-order elliptic and parabolic equations and for second-order strongly elliptic systems of variational type to the case of a general normal boundary-value problem for an elliptic equation of order2m. The representation of a distribution from (C ^∞ (S))’ is established and is usedfor the proof of convergence of an approximate method of solution of a normal elliptic boundary-value problem in unnormed spaces of distributions.     

Cubic superconvergent finite volume element method for one-dimensional elliptic and parabolic equations

In this paper, a cubic superconvergent finite volume element method based on optimal stress points is presented for one-dimensional elliptic and parabolic equations. For elliptic problem, it is proved that the method has optimal third order accuracy with respect to H¹ norm and fourth order accuracy with respect to L² norm. We also obtain that the scheme has fourth order superconvergence for derivatives at optimal stress points. For parabolic problem, the scheme is given and error estimate is obtained with respect to L² norm. Finally, numerical examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the method.     

Some superconvergence results of high-degree finite element method for a second order elliptic equation with variable coefficients

In this paper, some superconvergence results of high-degree finite element method are obtained for solving a second order elliptic equation with variable coefficients on the inner locally symmetric mesh with respect to a point x ₀ for triangular meshes. By using of the weak estimates and local symmetric technique, we obtain improved discretization errors of O(h ^p+1 |ln h|²) and O(h ^p+2 |ln h|²) when p (≥ 3) is odd and p (≥ 4) is even, respectively. Meanwhile, the results show that the combination of the weak estimates and local symmetric technique is also effective for superconvergence analysis of the second order elliptic equation with variable coefficients.     

The Gradient Superconvergence of Bilinear Finite Volume Element for Elliptic Problems

We study the gradient superconvergence of bilinear finite volume element (FVE) solving the elliptic problems. First, a superclose weak estimate is established for the bilinear form of the FVE method. Then, we prove that the gradient approximation of the FVE solution has the superconvergence property: where denotes the average gradient on elements containing point $P$ and $S$ is the set of optimal stress points composed of the mesh points, the midpoints of edges and the centers of elements.     

Superconvergence of finite volume element method for elliptic problems

We study the superconvergence of finite volume element (FVE) method for elliptic problems by using linear trial functions. Under the condition of C-uniform meshes, we first establish a superclose weak estimate for the bilinear form of FVE method. Then, we prove that all interior mesh points are the optimal stress points of interpolation function and further we give the superconvergence result of gradient approximation: $\displaystyle {\max _{P\in S}}\left |\left (\nabla u-\overline {\nabla }u_{h}\right )(P)\right |=O\left (h^{2}\right )\left |\ln h\right |$ , where S is the set of mesh points and $\overline {\nabla }$ denotes the average gradient on elements containing vertex P.     

A simple criterion for the m-cyclicity of the group of rational points on an elliptic curve defined over a finite field

We give a simple criterion for the cyclicity of the m-torsion subgroup of the group of rational points on an elliptic curve defined over a finite field of characteristic larger than 3 for m = 2, 3, 4, 6, 12. Received: 25 January 2005     

SUPERCONVERGENCE OF GENERALIZED DIFFERENCE METHOD FOR ELLIPTIC BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEM

Some superconvergence results of generalized difference solution for elliptic boundary value problem are given. It is shown that optimal points of the stresses for generalized difference method are the same as that for finite element method.     

Superconvergence of the direct discontinuous Galerkin method for a time‐fractional initial‐boundary value problem

A time‐fractional reaction–diffusion initial‐boundary value problem with periodic boundary condition is considered on Q ? Ω × [0, T] , where Ω is the interval [0, l] . Typical solutions of such problem have a weak singularity at the initial time t = 0. The numerical method of the paper uses a direct discontinuous Galerkin (DDG) finite element method in space on a uniform mesh, with piecewise polynomials of degree k ≥ 2 . In the temporal direction we use the L1 approximation of the Caputo derivative on a suitably graded mesh. We prove that at each time level of the mesh, our L1‐DDG solution is superconvergent of order k + 2 in L²(Ω) to a particular projection of the exact solution. Moreover, the L1‐DDG solution achieves superconvergence of order (k + 2) in a discrete L²(Q) norm computed at the Lobatto points, and order (k + 1) superconvergence in a discrete H¹(Q) seminorm at the Gauss points; numerical results show that these estimates are sharp.     

Elliptic semiplanes and group divisible designs with orthogonal resolutions

In this paper we prove that there exists an elliptic semiplaneS(v, k, m) withk –m 2 if and only if there exists a group divisible design GDD _k ((k –m)(k – 1);k –m; 0, 1) withm pairwise orthogonal resolutions. As an example of this theorem, we construct an elliptic semiplaneW(45, 7, 3) and show thatW is isomorphic to the elliptic semiplaneS(45, 7, 3) given by R. D. Baker.     

Superconvergent recovery of gradients on subdomains from piecewise linear finite-element approximations

Engineers have been aware for some time of the phenomenon of superconvergence, whereby there exist (stress) points at which the accuracy of a finite-element solution is superior to that of the approximation generally. This phenomenon has been treated in recent years by mathematicians who have proved, for certain two-dimensional secondorder elliptic problems, superconvergent error estimates for retrieved finite-element derivatives. These results have demanded high global regularity of the solutions of the bondary value problems. In this present article cut-off functions are used to prove similar superconvergence results over interior subdomains. This allows superconvergence estimates to be derived for problems with solutions of low global regularity, particularly those involving singularities.     

Two order superconvergence of finite element methods for Sobolev equations

We consider finite element methods applied to a class of Sobolev equations inR ^d(d ≥ 1). Global strong superconvergence, which only requires that partitions are quais-uniform, is investigated for the error between the approximate solution and the Ritz-Sobolev projection of the exact solution. Two order superconvergence results are demonstrated inW ^1,p (Ω) andL _p(Ω) for 2 ≤p < ∞.     

A collocation method for systems of nonlinear ordinary differential equations

A collocation method based on piecewise polynomials is applied to boundary value problems for mth order systems of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Optimal a priori estimates are obtained for the error of approximation in the maximum norm and superconvergence is verified at particular points.     

Superconvergent recovery of gradients on subdomains from piecewise linear finite-element approximations

Engineers have been aware for some time of the phenomenon of superconvergence, whereby there exist (stress) points at which the accuracy of a finite-element solution is superior to that of the approximation generally. This phenomenon has been treated in recent years by mathematicians who have proved, for certain two-dimensional second-order elliptic problems, superconvergent error estimates for retrieved finite-element derivatives. These results have demanded high global regularity of the solutions of the boundary value problems. In this present article cut-off functions are used to prove similar superconvergence results over interior subdomains. This allows superconvergence estimates to be derived for problems with solutions of low global regularity, particularly those involving singularities.