The fictitious domain method with L2‐penalty for the Stokes problem with the Dirichlet boundary condition

We consider the fictitious domain method with L²‐penalty for the Stokes problem with the Dirichlet boundary condition. First, we investigate the error estimates for the penalty method at the continuous level. We obtain the convergence of order in H¹‐norm for the velocity and in L²‐norm for the pressure, where is the penalty parameter. The L²‐norm error estimate for the velocity is upgraded to . Moreover, we derive the a priori estimates depending on for the solution of the penalty problem. Next, we apply the finite element approximation to the penalty problem using the P1/P1 element with stabilization. For the discrete penalty problem, we prove the error estimate in H¹‐norm for the velocity and in L²‐norm for the pressure, where h denotes the discretization parameter. For the velocity in L²‐norm, the convergence rate is improved to . The theoretical results are verified by the numerical experiments.     

New interpolation error estimates and a posteriori error analysis for linear parabolic interface problems

We derive residual‐based a posteriori error estimates of finite element method for linear parabolic interface problems in a two‐dimensional convex polygonal domain. Both spatially discrete and fully discrete approximations are analyzed. While the space discretization uses finite element spaces that are allowed to change in time, the time discretization is based on the backward Euler approximation. The main ingredients used in deriving a posteriori estimates are new Clément type interpolation estimates and an appropriate adaptation of the elliptic reconstruction technique introduced by (Makridakis and Nochetto, SIAM J Numer Anal 4 (2003), 1585–1594). We use only an energy argument to establish a posteriori error estimates with optimal order convergence in the ‐norm and almost optimal order in the ‐norm. The interfaces are assumed to be of arbitrary shape but are smooth for our purpose. Numerical results are presented to validate our derived estimators. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 570–598, 2017     

Superconvergence of the local discontinuous galerkin method applied to the one‐dimensional second‐order wave equation

We analyze the superconvergence properties of the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method applied to the second‐order wave equation in one space dimension. With a suitable projection of the initial conditions for the LDG scheme, we prove that the LDG solution and its spatial derivative are super close to particular projections of the exact solutions for pth‐degree polynomial spaces. We use these results to show that the significant parts of the discretization errors for the LDG solution and its derivative are proportional to ‐degree right and left Radau polynomials, respectively. These results allow us to prove that the p‐degree LDG solution and its derivative are superconvergent at the roots of ‐degree right and left Radau polynomials, respectively, while computational results show higher convergence rate. Superconvergence results can be used to construct asymptotically correct a posteriori error estimates by solving a local steady problem on each element. This will be discussed further in Part II of this work, where we will prove that the a posteriori LDG error estimates for the solution and its derivative converge to the true spatial errors in the L ²‐norm under mesh refinement. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 862–901, 2014     

Least‐squares method for the Oseen equation

This article studies the least‐squares finite element method for the linearized, stationary Navier–Stokes equation based on the stress‐velocity‐pressure formulation in d dimensions (d = 2 or 3). The least‐squares functional is simply defined as the sum of the squares of the L² norm of the residuals. It is shown that the homogeneous least‐squares functional is elliptic and continuous in the norm. This immediately implies that the a priori error estimate of the conforming least‐squares finite element approximation is optimal in the energy norm. The L² norm error estimate for the velocity is also established through a refined duality argument. Moreover, when the right‐hand side f belongs only to , we derive an a priori error bound in a weaker norm, that is, the norm. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 1289–1303, 2016     

Asymptotically exact a posteriori local discontinuous Galerkin error estimates for the one‐dimensional second‐order wave equation

In this article, we analyze a residual‐based a posteriori error estimates of the spatial errors for the semidiscrete local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method applied to the one‐dimensional second‐order wave equation. These error estimates are computationally simple and are obtained by solving a local steady problem with no boundary condition on each element. We apply the optimal L² error estimates and the superconvergence results of Part I of this work [Baccouch, Numer Methods Partial Differential Equations 30 (2014), 862–901] to prove that, for smooth solutions, these a posteriori LDG error estimates for the solution and its spatial derivative, at a fixed time, converge to the true spatial errors in the L²‐norm under mesh refinement. The order of convergence is proved to be , when p‐degree piecewise polynomials with are used. As a consequence, we prove that the LDG method combined with the a posteriori error estimation procedure yields both accurate error estimates and superconvergent solutions. Our computational results show higher convergence rate. We further prove that the global effectivity indices, for both the solution and its derivative, in the L²‐norm converge to unity at rate while numerically they exhibit and rates, respectively. Numerical experiments are shown to validate the theoretical results. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1461–1491, 2015     

Superconvergence and gradient recovery for a finite volume element method for solving convection‐diffusion equations

We study the superconvergence of the finite volume element (FVE) method for solving convection‐diffusion equations using bilinear trial functions. We first establish a superclose weak estimate for the bilinear form of FVE method. Based on this estimate, we obtain the H¹‐superconvergence result: . Then, we present a gradient recovery formula and prove that the recovery gradient possesses the ‐order superconvergence. Moreover, an asymptotically exact a posteriori error estimate is also given for the gradient error of FVE solution.Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 1152–1168, 2014     

Superconvergence of conforming finite element for fourth‐order singularly perturbed problems of reaction diffusion type in 1D

We consider conforming finite element approximation of fourth‐order singularly perturbed problems of reaction diffusion type. We prove superconvergence of standard C¹ finite element method of degree p on a modified Shishkin mesh. In particular, a superconvergence error bound of in a discrete energy norm is established. The error bound is uniformly valid with respect to the singular perturbation parameter ?. Numerical tests indicate that the error estimate is sharp. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 550–566, 2014     

Unconditional superconvergence analysis of an H1‐galerkin mixed finite element method for nonlinear Sobolev equations

An efficient H¹‐Galerkin mixed finite element method (MFEM) is presented with and zero order Raviart‐Thomas elements for the nonlinear Sobolev equations. On one hand, the existence and uniqueness of the solutions of the semidiscrete approximation scheme are proved and the super close results of order for the original variable u in a broken H¹ norm and the auxiliary variable in norm are deduced without the boundedness of the numerical solution in ‐norm. Conversely, a linearized Crank‐Nicolson fully discrete scheme with the unconditional super close property is also developed through a new approach, while previous literature always require certain time step conditions (see the references below). Finally, a numerical experiment is included to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method. Here h is the subdivision parameter and τ is the time step.     

Numerical solution of one‐dimensional Burgers' equation

In this article, an iterative method for the approximate solution of a class of Burgers' equation is obtained in reproducing kernel space . It is proved the approximation converges uniformly to the exact solution u(x, t) for any initial function under trivial conditions, the derivatives of are also convergent to the derivatives of u(x, t), and the approximate solution is the best approximation under the system © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1251–1264, 2015     

A C0‐weak Galerkin finite element method for fourth‐order elliptic problems

This article proposes and analyzes a C⁰‐weak Galerkin (WG) finite element method for solving the biharmonic equation in two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional. The new WG method uses continuous piecewise‐polynomial approximations of degree for the unknown u and discontinuous piecewise‐polynomial approximations of degree k for the trace of on the interelement boundaries. Optimal error estimates are obtained in H², H¹, and L² norms. Numerical experiments illustrate and confirm the theoretical results. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 1090–1104, 2016     

Error analysis of mixed finite element method for Poisson‐Nernst‐Planck system

To improve the convergence rate in L² norm from suboptimal to optimal for both electrostatic potential and ionic concentrations in Poisson‐Nernst‐Planck (PNP) system, we propose the mixed finite element method in this article to discretize the electrostatic potential equation, and still use the standard finite element method to discretize the time‐dependent ionic concentrations equations. Optimal error estimates in norm for the electrostatic potential, and in and norms for the ionic concentrations are attained. As a by‐product, the electric field can also achieve a higher approximation order in contrast with the standard finite element method for PNP system. Numerical experiments are performed to validate the theoretical results.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 1924–1948, 2017     

A priori and a posteriori error analysis for the mixed discontinuous Galerkin finite element approximations of the biharmonic problems

In this article, a new mixed discontinuous Galerkin finite element method is proposed for the biharmonic equation in two or three‐dimension space. It is amenable to an efficient implementation displaying new convergence properties. Through an auxiliary variable , we rewrite the problem into a two‐order system. Then, the a priori error estimates are derived in L² norm and in the broken DG norm for both u and p. We prove that, when polynomials of degree r () are used, we obtain the optimal convergence rate of order r + 1 in L² norm and of order r in DG norm for u, and the order r in both norms for . The numerical experiments illustrate the theoretic order of convergence. For the purpose of adaptive finite element method, the a posteriori error estimators are also proposed and proved to field a sharp upper bound. We also provide numerical evidence that the error estimators and indicators can effectively drive the adaptive strategies. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 318–353, 2017     

Error estimates to smooth solutions of semi‐discrete discontinuous Galerkin methods with quadrature rules for scalar conservation laws

In this article, we focus on error estimates to smooth solutions of semi‐discrete discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods with quadrature rules for scalar conservation laws. The main techniques we use are energy estimate and Taylor expansion first introduced by Zhang and Shu in (Zhang and Shu, SIAM J Num Anal 42 (2004), 641–666). We show that, with (piecewise polynomials of degree k) finite elements in 1D problems, if the quadrature over elements is exact for polynomials of degree , error estimates of are obtained for general monotone fluxes, and optimal estimates of are obtained for upwind fluxes. For multidimensional problems, if in addition quadrature over edges is exact for polynomials of degree , error estimates of are obtained for general monotone fluxes, and are obtained for monotone and sufficiently smooth numerical fluxes. Numerical results validate our analysis. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 467–488, 2017     

Finite element Galerkin approximations to a class of nonlinear and nonlocal parabolic problems

In this article, a finite element Galerkin method is applied to a general class of nonlinear and nonlocal parabolic problems. Based on an exponential weight function, new a priori bounds which are valid for uniform in time are derived. As a result, existence of an attractor is proved for the problem with nonhomogeneous right hand side which is independent of time. In particular, when the forcing function is zero or decays exponentially, it is shown that solution has exponential decay property which improves even earlier results in one dimensional problems. For the semidiscrete method, global existence of a unique discrete solution is derived and it is shown that the discrete problem has an attractor. Moreover, optimal error estimates are derived in both and ‐norms with later estimate is a new result in this context. For completely discrete scheme, backward Euler method with its linearized version is discussed and existence of a unique discrete solution is established. Further, optimal estimates in ‐norm are proved for fully discrete schemes. Finally, several numerical experiments are conducted to confirm our theoretical findings. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 1232–1264, 2016     

A linearized,decoupled, and energy‐preserving compact finite difference scheme for the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations

In this article, a decoupled and linearized compact finite difference scheme is proposed for solving the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. The new scheme is proved to preserve the total mass and energy which are defined by using a recursion relationship. Besides the standard energy method, an induction argument together with an H¹ technique are introduced to establish the optimal point‐wise error estimate of the proposed scheme. Without imposing any constraints on the grid ratios, the convergence order of the numerical solution is proved to be of with mesh size h and time step τ. Numerical results are reported to verify the theoretical analysis, and collision of two solitary waves are also simulated. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 840–867, 2017     

On the Euler implicit/explicit iterative scheme for the stationary Oldroyd fluid

In this article, we consider the stationary Oldroyd fluid equations from the large time behavior research of the nonstationary equations. Thus, to obtain its numerical solution, we first solve the nonstationary Oldroyd fluid equations via the Euler implicit/explicit finite element method with the integral term discretized by the right‐hand rectangle rule, then increase the total time (i.e., number of time steps) to approximate the solution of the original stationary equations. Under a new uniqueness condition (A2), we prove the exponential stability of the solution pair for the stationary equations and the almost unconditional stability of the numerical method. Furthermore, we also obtain the uniform optimal and error estimates in time integral . Finally, several numerical experiments are provided to verify our theoretical results.     

A fast‐high order compact difference method for the fractional cable equation

The Cable equation is one of the most fundamental equations for modeling neuronal dynamics. In this article, we consider a high order compact finite difference numerical solution for the fractional Cable equation, which is a generalization of the classical Cable equation by taking into account the anomalous diffusion in the movement of the ions in neuronal system. The resulting finite difference scheme is unconditionally stable and converges with the convergence order of in maximum norm, 1‐norm and 2‐norm. Furthermore, we present a fast solution technique to accelerate Toeplitz matrix‐vector multiplications arising from finite difference discretization. This fast solution technique is based on a fast Fourier transform and depends on the special structure of coefficient matrices, and it helps to reduce the computational work from required by traditional methods to without using any lossy compression, where and τ is the size of time step, and h is the size of space step. Moreover, we give a compact finite difference scheme and consider its stability analysis for two‐dimensional fractional Cable equation. The applicability and accuracy of the scheme are demonstrated by numerical experiments to support our theoretical analysis.     

On the Multiplicity of Solutions Of a Differential Equation Arising in Chemical Reactor Theory

Consider the boundary value problem where β ? 0, τ ? 0. We are concerned with a mathematically rigorous numerical study of the number of solutions in any bounded portion of the positive quadrant (τ ? 0, β ? 0) of the τ, β plane. These correct computational results may then be matched with asymptotic (β→∞, τ ? 0) results developed earlier. These numerical results are based on the development of a posteriori error estimates for the numerical solution of an associated initial-value problem and a priori bounds on .     

Decoupled schemes for unsteady MHD equations. I. time discretization

In this article, a time discretization decoupled scheme for two‐dimensional magnetohydrodynamics equations is proposed. The almost unconditional stability and convergence of this scheme are provided. The optimal error estimates for velocity and magnet are provided, and the optimal error estimate for pressure are deduced as well. Finite element spatial discretization and numerical implementation are considered in our article (Zhang and He, Comput Math Appl 69 (2015), 1390–1406). © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 956–973, 2017     

Superconvergence analysis of an energy stable scheme with three step backward differential formula-finite element method for nonlinear reaction–diffusion equation

A three step backward differential formula scheme is proposed for nonlinear reaction–diffusion equation and superconvergence results are studied with Galerkin finite element method unconditionally. Energy stability is testified for the constructed scheme with an artificial term. Splitting technique is utilized to get rid of the ratio between the time step size and the subdivision parameter . Temporal error estimate in H²-norm is derived, which leads to the boundedness of the solutions of the time-discrete equations. Unconditional spatial error estimate in L²-norm is deduced which help bound the numerical solutions in L^∞-norm. Superconvergent property of in H¹-norm with order is obtained by taking difference between two time levels of the error equations unconditionally. The global superconvergent property is deduced through the above results. Two numerical examples show the validity of the theoretical analysis.