A finite element method for interface problems in domains with smooth boundaries and interfaces

This paper is concerned with the analysis of a finite element method for nonhomogeneous second order elliptic interface problems on smooth domains. The method consists in approximating the domains by polygonal domains, transferring the boundary data in a natural way, and then applying a finite element method to the perturbed problem on the approximate polygonal domains. It is shown that the error in the finite element approximation is of optimal order for linear elements on a quasiuniform triangulation. As such the method is robust in the regularity of the data in the original problem.     

Unfitted finite element methods for the heat conduction in composite media with contact resistance

This article is concerned with the heat conduction problem in composite media. In practical applications, the composite materials often do not contact well and there exist gaps between the contacting materials. This leads to the thermal contact resistance effect which results in a discontinuity of the temperature across the interface. In this article, an unfitted finite element method is proposed to solve the problem. Different from the traditional finite element method, the proposed method uses structured meshes that allow the interface to cut through. To avoid integrating on curved domains and interfaces, the interface is approximated by a broken line/plane corresponding to the triangulation. In addition, a ghost‐penalty is added to recover the condition number of the stiffness matrix to with a hidden constant independent of the mesh‐interface geometry. A rigorous analysis is provided. Finally, numerical tests are presented to verify the theoretical findings. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 354–380, 2017     

Boundary element analysis of uncoupled transient thermo-elastic problems with time- and space-dependent heat sources

A boundary element method (BEM) for the analysis of two- and three-dimensional uncoupled transient thermo-elastic problems involving time- and space-dependent heat sources is presented. The domain integrals are efficiently treated using the Cartesian transformation and the radial integration methods without considering any internal cells. Similar to the dual reciprocity method (DRM), some internal points without any connectivity are considered; however, in contrast to the DRM, any arbitrary mesh-free interpolation method can be used in the present formulation. There is no need to find any particular solutions and the shape functions in the mesh-free interpolation method can be arbitrary and sufficiently complicated. Unlike the DRM, the generated system of equations contains the unknowns only on the boundary. After finding the primary unknowns on the boundary, the temperature, displacement, and stress components at all internal points can directly be found without solving any system of equations. Three examples with different forms of heat sources are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method. Although the proposed BEM is mathematically more complicated than domain methods, such as the finite element method (FEM), it is more efficient from a modelling viewpoint since only the surface mesh has to be generated in the presented method.     

On the h-adaptive coupling of FE and BE for viscoplastic and elasto-plastic interface problems

This paper presents a posteriori error estimates for the symmetric finite element and boundary element coupling for a nonlinear interface problem: A bounded body with a viscoplastic or plastic material behaviour is surrounded by an elastic body. The nonlinearity is treated by the finite element method while large parts of the linear elastic body are approximated using the boundary element method. Based on the a posteriori error estimates we derive an algorithm for the adaptive mesh refinement of the boundary elements and the finite elements. Its implementation is documented and numerical examples are included.     

TWO-SCALE CURVED ELEMENT METHOD FOR ELLIPTIC PROBLEMS WITH SMALL PERIODIC COEFFICIENTS

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the second order elliptic problems with small periodic coefficients on a bounded domain with a curved boundary. A two-scale curved element method which couples linear elements and isoparametric elements is proposed. The error estimate is obtained over the given smooth domain. Furthermore an additive Schwarz method is provided for the isoparametric element method.     

一种有限元-边界元耦合分域算法

提出了一种有限元-边界元耦合分域算法．该算法将所分析问题的区域分解成有限元和边界元子域,在满足两子域界面上位移和面力协调连续的条件下,通过迭代求解得到问题的解．在迭代求解过程中,引入动态松弛系数,使收敛得以加速．该方法在两子域界面上有限单元结点和边界单元结点的位置相互独立,无需协调一致,对诸如裂纹扩展过程的模拟具有独特的优势．用所提出的耦合算法分析算例,得到的结果与有限元法、边界元法和另一种耦合算法的数值计算结果一致,验证了这种算法的正确性和可行性．     

An immersed finite element space and its approximation capability

This article discusses an immersed finite element (IFE) space introduced for solving a second‐order elliptic boundary value problem with discontinuous coefficients (interface problem). The IFE space is nonconforming and its partition can be independent of the interface. The error estimates for the interpolation of a function in the usual Sobolev space indicate that this IFE space has an approximation capability similar to that of the standard conforming linear finite element space based on body‐fit partitions. Numerical examples of the related finite element method based on this IFE space are provided. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 20: 338–367, 2004     

Analysis of optimal preconditioners for CutFEM

In this article, we consider a class of unfitted finite element methods for scalar elliptic problems. These so-called CutFEM methods use standard finite element spaces on a fixed unfitted triangulation combined with the Nitsche technique and a ghost penalty stabilization. As a model problem we consider the application of such a method to the Poisson interface problem. We introduce and analyze a new class of preconditioners that is based on a subspace decomposition approach. The unfitted finite element space is split into two subspaces, where one subspace is the standard finite element space associated to the background mesh and the second subspace is spanned by all cut basis functions corresponding to nodes on the cut elements. We will show that this splitting is stable, uniformly in the discretization parameter and in the location of the interface in the triangulation. Based on this we introduce an efficient preconditioner that is uniformly spectrally equivalent to the stiffness matrix. Using a similar splitting, it is shown that the same preconditioning approach can also be applied to a fictitious domain CutFEM discretization of the Poisson equation. Results of numerical experiments are included that illustrate optimality of such preconditioners for the Poisson interface problem and the Poisson fictitious domain problem.     

Convergence analysis of an hp finite element method for singularly perturbed transmission problems in smooth domains

We consider a two‐dimensional singularly perturbed transmission problem with two different diffusion coefficients, in a domain with smooth (analytic) boundary. The solution will contain boundary layers only in the part of the domain where the diffusion coefficient is high and interface layers along the interface. Utilizing existing and newly derived regularity results for the exact solution, we prove the robustness of an hp finite element method for its approximation. Under the assumption of analytic input data, we show that the method converges at an “exponential” rate, provided the mesh and polynomial degree distribution are chosen appropriately. Numerical results illustrating our theoretical findings are also included. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

Approximation capability of a bilinear immersed finite element space

This article discusses a bilinear immersed finite element (IFE) space for solving second‐order elliptic boundary value problems with discontinuous coefficients (interface problem). This is a nonconforming finite element space and its partition can be independent of the interface. The error estimates for the interpolation of a Sobolev function indicate that this IFE space has the usual approximation capability expected from bilinear polynomials. Numerical examples of the related finite element method are provided. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2008     

P2Q2Iso2D=2D Isoparametric FEM in Matlab

A short Matlab implementation realizes a flexible isoparametric finite element method up to quadratic order for the approximation of elliptic problems in two-dimensional domains with curved boundaries. Triangles and quadrilaterals equipped with varying quadrature rules allow for mesh refinement. Numerical examples for the Laplace equation with mixed boundary conditions indicate the flexibility of isoparametric finite elements.     

Some remarks on the flux-free finite element method for immiscible two-fluid flows

We give some theoretical considerations on the the flux-free finite element method for the generalized Stokes interface problem arising from the immiscible two-fluid flow problems. In the flux-free finite element method, the flux constraint is posed as another Lagrange multiplier to keep the zero-flux on the interface. As a result, the mass of each fluid is expected to be preserved at every time step. We first study the effect of discontinuous coefficients (viscosity and density) on the error of the standard finite element approximations very carefully. Then, the analysis is extended to the flux-free finite element method.     

A boundary element method for homogenization of periodic structures

Homogenized coefficients of periodic structures are calculated via an auxiliary partial differential equation in the periodic cell. Typically, a volume finite element discretization is employed for the numerical solution. In this paper, we reformulate the problem as a boundary integral equation using Steklov–Poincaré operators. The resulting boundary element method only discretizes the boundary of the periodic cell and the interface between the materials within the cell. We prove that the homogenized coefficients converge super-linearly with the mesh size, and we support the theory with examples in two and three dimensions.     

Weak solvability of interior transmission problems via mixed finite elements and Dirichlet-to-Neumann mappings

We study the weak solvability of an interior linear-nonlinear transmission problem arising in steady heat transfer and potential theory. For the variational formulation, we use a Dirichlet-to-Neumann mapping on the interface, which is obtained from the application of the boundary integral method to the linear domain, and we utilize a mixed finite element method in the nonlinear region. Existence and uniqueness of solution for the continuous formulation are provided and general approximation results for a fully discrete Galerkin method are derived. In particular, a compatibility condition between the mesh sizes involved is deduced in order to conclude the solvability and stability of this Galerkin scheme.     

Postprocessing and higher order convergence for the mixed finite element approximations of the Stokes eigenvalue problems

In this paper we propose a method for improving the convergence rate of the mixed finite element approximations for the Stokes eigenvalue problem. It is based on a postprocessing strategy that consists of solving an additional Stokes source problem on an augmented mixed finite element space which can be constructed either by refining the mesh or by using the same mesh but increasing the order of the mixed finite element space. Dedicated to Ivan Hlaváček on the occasion of his 75th birthday     

A Well-Conditioned,Nonconforming Nitsche's Extended Finite Element Method for Elliptic Interface Problems

In this paper, we introduce a nonconforming Nitsche's extended finite element method (NXFEM) for elliptic interface problems on unfitted triangulation elements. The solution on each side of the interface is separately expanded in the standard nonconforming piecewise linear polynomials with the edge averages as degrees of freedom. The jump conditions on the interface and the discontinuities on the cut edges (the segment of edges cut by the interface) are weakly enforced by the Nitsche's approach. In the method, the harmonic weighted fluxes are used and the extra stabilization terms on the interface edges and cut edges are added to guarantee the stability and the well conditioning. We prove that the convergence order of the errors in energy and $L^2$ norms are optimal. Moreover, the errors are independent of the position of the interface relative to the mesh and the ratio of the discontinuous coefficients. Furthermore, we prove that the condition number of the system matrix is independent of the interface position. Numerical examples are given to confirm the theoretical results.     

非嵌套有限元的W循环多重网格方法

本文讨论了下述情形：１非嵌套网格；２曲边有限元；３非协调元；４拟协调元；５有限元的型函数有特殊性质，都能导致非嵌套的有限元空间．对一个包括上述情形的问题给出了非嵌套有限元的Ｗ循环多重网格方法，并证明了它的收敛性。     

Finite element derivative interpolation recovery technique and superconvergence

A new finite element derivative recovery technique is proposed by using the polynomial interpolation method. We show that the recovered derivatives possess superconvergence on the recovery domain and ultraconvergence at the interior mesh points for finite element approximations to elliptic boundary problems. Compared with the well-known Z-Z patch recovery technique, the advantage of our method is that it gives an explicit recovery formula and possesses the ultraconvergence for the odd-order finite elements. Finally, some numerical examples are presented to illustrate the theoretical analysis.     

Analysis of and workarounds for element reversal for a finite element-based algorithm for warping triangular and tetrahedral meshes

We consider an algorithm called FEMWARP for warping triangular and tetrahedral finite element meshes that computes the warping using the finite element method itself. The algorithm takes as input a two- or three-dimensional domain defined by a boundary mesh (segments in one dimension or triangles in two dimensions) that has a volume mesh (triangles in two dimensions or tetrahedra in three dimensions) in its interior. It also takes as input a prescribed movement of the boundary mesh. It computes as output updated positions of the vertices of the volume mesh. The first step of the algorithm is to determine from the initial mesh a set of local weights for each interior vertex that describes each interior vertex in terms of the positions of its neighbors. These weights are computed using a finite element stiffness matrix. After a boundary transformation is applied, a linear system of equations based upon the weights is solved to determine the final positions of the interior vertices. The FEMWARP algorithm has been considered in the previous literature (e.g., in a 2001 paper by Baker). FEMWARP has been successful in computing deformed meshes for certain applications. However, sometimes FEMWARP reverses elements; this is our main concern in this paper. We analyze the causes for this undesirable behavior and propose several techniques to make the method more robust against reversals. The most successful of the proposed methods includes combining FEMWARP with an optimization-based untangler.     

A selective immersed discontinuous Galerkin method for elliptic interface problems

This article proposes a selective immersed discontinuous Galerkin method based on bilinear immersed finite elements (IFE) for solving second‐order elliptic interface problems. This method applies the discontinuous Galerkin formulation wherever selected, such as those elements around an interface or a singular source, but the regular Galerkin formulation everywhere else. A selective bilinear IFE space is constructed and applied to the selective immersed discontinuous Galerkin method based on either the symmetric or nonsymmetric interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin formulation. The new method can solve an interface problem by a rectangular mesh with local mesh refinement independent of the interface even if its geometry is nontrivial. Meanwhile, if desired, its computational cost can be maintained very close to that of the standard Galerkin IFE method. It is shown that the selective bilinear IFE space has the optimal approximation capability expected from piecewise bilinear polynomials. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate features of this method, including the effectiveness of local mesh refinement around the interface and the sensitivity to the penalty parameters. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.