Anisotropic Wilson element with conforming finite element approximation for a coupled continuum pipe‐flow/Darcy model in Karst aquifers

Numerical method for a coupled continuum pipe‐flow/Darcy model describing flow in porous media with an embedded conduit pipe is considered. Wilson element on anisotropic mesh is used to solve the Darcy equation on porous matrix. The existence and uniqueness of the approximation solution are obtained. Optimal error estimates in L² and H¹ norms are established independent of the regularity condition on the mesh. Numerical examples show the efficiency of the presented scheme. With the same number of nodal points, the results using Wilson element on anisotropic mesh are much better than those of the same element and Q₁ element on regular mesh. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite volume element approximation of the coupled continuum pipe‐flow/Darcy model for flows in karst aquifers

A finite volume element method is applied to approximate the continuum pipe‐flow/Darcy problem, which models the coupled conduit flow and porous media flow in Karst aquifers. A decoupled scheme is proposed for solving the coupled discretization problem. Optimal error estimates in L² norm and H¹ norm are given in this article. Some numerical examples are presented to verify the theoretical results and demonstrate the effectiveness of the decoupling approach. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 376–392, 2014     

Analysis and finite element approximation of a coupled,continuum pipe‐flow/Darcy model for flow in porous media with embedded conduits

We consider the continuum Darcy/pipe flow model for flows in a porous matrix containing embedded conduits; such coupled flows are present in, e.g., karst aquifers. The mathematical well‐posedness of the coupled problem as well as convergence rates of finite element approximation are established in the two‐dimensional case. Computational results are also provided. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 27: 1242–1252, 2011     

Decoupled characteristic stabilized finite element method for time‐dependent Navier–Stokes/Darcy model

In this article, we propose and analyze a new decoupled characteristic stabilized finite element method for the time‐dependent Navier–Stokes/Darcy model. The key idea lies in combining the characteristic method with the stabilized finite element method to solve the decoupled model by using the lowest‐order conforming finite element space. In this method, the original model is divided into two parts: one is the nonstationary Navier–Stokes equation, and the other one is the Darcy equation. To deal with the difficulty caused by the trilinear term with nonzero boundary condition, we use the characteristic method. Furthermore, as the lowest‐order finite element pair do not satisfy LBB (Ladyzhen‐Skaya‐Brezzi‐Babuska) condition, we adopt the stabilized technique to overcome this flaw. The stability of the numerical method is first proved, and the optimal error estimates are established. Finally, extensive numerical results are provided to justify the theoretical analysis.     

Reliable a posteriori error control for nonconforming finite element approximation of Stokes flow

We derive computable a posteriori error estimates for the lowest order nonconforming Crouzeix-Raviart element applied to the approximation of incompressible Stokes flow. The estimator provides an explicit upper bound that is free of any unknown constants, provided that a reasonable lower bound for the inf-sup constant of the underlying problem is available. In addition, it is shown that the estimator provides an equivalent lower bound on the error up to a generic constant.

     

A two‐grid stabilized mixed finite element method for Darcy‐Forchheimer model

A two‐grid stabilized mixed finite element method based on pressure projection stabilization is proposed for the two‐dimensional Darcy‐Forchheimer model. We use the derivative of a smooth function, , to approximate the derivative of in constructing the two‐grid algorithm. The two‐grid method consists of solving a small nonlinear system on the coarse mesh and then solving a linear system on the fine mesh. There are a substantial reduction in computational cost. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solution of the discrete schemes on the coarse grid and the fine grid and obtain error estimates for the two‐grid algorithm. Finally, some numerical experiments are carried out to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the method.     

A weak Galerkin finite element method for a coupled Stokes‐Darcy problem

In this article, we introduce and analyze a weak Galerkin finite element method for numerically solving the coupling of fluid flow with porous media flow. Flows are governed by the Stokes equations in primal velocity‐pressure formulation and Darcy equation in the second order primary formulation, respectively, and the corresponding transmission conditions are given by mass conservation, balance of normal forces, and the Beavers‐Joseph‐Saffman law. By using the weak Galerkin approach, we consider the two‐dimensional problem with the piecewise constant elements for approximations of the velocity, pressure, and hydraulic head. Stability and optimal error estimates are obtained. Finally, we provide several numerical results illustrating the good performance of the proposed scheme and confirming the optimal order of convergence provided by the weak Galerkin approximation. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 1352–1373, 2017     

A nonconforming quadrilateral element with maximal inf‐sup constant

A new nonconforming element is introduced for quadrilateral meshes. The element is designed to maximize the inf‐sup constant for a Stokes element pair. Numerical results are presented and we observe that the maximizing inf‐sup constant results in efficiency of computing time. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 12‐132, 2014     

Vorticity‐pressure formulations for the Brinkman‐Darcy coupled problem

We introduce a new variational formulation for the Brinkman‐Darcy equations formulated in terms of the scaled Brinkman vorticity and the global pressure. The velocities in each subdomain are fully decoupled through the momentum equations, and can be later recovered from the principal unknowns. A new finite element method is also proposed, consisting in equal‐order Nédélec and piecewise continuous elements, for vorticity and pressure, respectively. The error analysis for the scheme is carried out in the natural norms, with bounds independent of the fluid viscosity. An adequate modification of the formulation and analysis permits us to specify the presentation to the case of axisymmetric configurations. We provide a set of numerical examples illustrating the robustness, accuracy, and efficiency of the proposed discretization.     

Split least‐squares finite element methods for non‐Fickian flow in porous media

In this article, we introduce two least‐squares finite element procedures for parabolic integro‐differential equations arising in the modeling of non‐Fickian flow in porous media. By selecting the least‐squares functional properly the presented procedure can be split into two independent subprocedures, one subprocedure is for the primitive unknown and the other is for the flux. The optimal order convergence analysis is established. Numerical examples are given to show the efficiency of the introduced schemes. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

A nonconforming exponentially fitted finite element method for two‐dimensional drift‐diffusion models in semiconductors

A new nonconforming exponentially fitted finite element for a Galerkin approximation of convection–diffusion equations with a dominating advective term is considered. The attention is here focused on the drift‐diffusion current continuity equations in semiconductor device modeling. The scheme extends to the two‐dimensional case, the well known Scharfetter–Gummel method, by imposing a divergence‐free current over each element of the triangulation. Convergence of the method in the energy norm is proved and some numerical results are included. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 133–150, 1999     

A finite element method for heat transfer of power‐law flow in channels with a transverse magnetic field

Heat transfer of a power‐law non‐Newtonian incompressible fluid in channels with porous walls has not been carefully studied using a proper numerical method despite a few constructions of approximate analytic solutions through the similarity transformation and perturbation method for Newtonian fluids (i.e. power‐law index being one). In this paper, we propose a finite element method for the thermal incompressible flow equations. The incompressible condition is treated by a penalty formulation. Numerical solutions are validated by comparing them with an approximate analytic solution of the Navier–Stokes equation in the Newtonian fluid case. Then, the method is used to simulate the heat transfer of various power‐law fluids. Additionally, unlike previous studies, we allow the thermal diffusivity to be a function of temperature gradient. The effect of different values of the parameters on the temperature and velocity is also discussed in this paper. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new stabilized finite element method for advection‐diffusion‐reaction equations

In this article, a new stabilized finite element method is proposed and analyzed for advection‐diffusion‐reaction equations. The key feature is that both the mesh‐dependent Péclet number and the mesh‐dependent Damköhler number are reasonably incorporated into the newly designed stabilization parameter. The error estimates are established, where, up to the regularity‐norm of the exact solution, the explicit‐dependence of the diffusivity, advection, reaction, and mesh size (or the dependence of the mesh‐dependent Péclet number and the mesh‐dependent Damköhler number) is revealed. Such dependence in the error bounds provides a mathematical justification on the effectiveness of the proposed method for any values of diffusivity, advection, dissipative reaction, and mesh size. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 616–645, 2016     

A mixed finite element method for a quasi‐Newtonian fluid flow

We propose a mixed formulation for quasi‐Newtonian fluid flow obeying the power law where the stress tensor is introduced as a new variable. Based on such a formulation, a mixed finite element is constructed and analyzed. This finite element method possesses local (i.e., at element level) conservation properties (conservation of the momentum and the mass) as in the finite volume methods. We give existence and uniqueness results for the continuous problem and its approximation and we prove error bounds. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2004.     

A second‐order finite difference approximation for a mathematical model of erythropoiesis

We present a second‐order finite difference scheme for approximating solutions of a mathematical model of erythropoiesis, which consists of two nonlinear partial differential equations and one nonlinear ordinary differential equation. We show that the scheme achieves second‐order accuracy for smooth solutions. We compare this scheme to a previously developed first‐order method and show that the first order method requires significantly more computational time to provide solutions with similar accuracy. We also compare this numerical scheme with other well‐known second‐order methods and show that it has better capability in approximating discontinuous solutions. Finally, we present an application to recovery after blood loss. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

A finite element method for the axisymmetric three‐field Stokes system with a discontinuous pressure

A quadrilateral based velocity‐pressure‐extrastress tensor mixed finite element method for solving the three‐field Stokes system in the axisymmetric case is studied. The method derived from Fortin's Q₂ − P₁ velocity‐pressure element is to be used in connection with the standard Galerkin formulation. This makes it particularly suitable for the numerical simulation of viscoelastic flow. It is proven to be second‐order convergent in the natural weighted Sobolev norms, for the system under consideration. The crucial result that the method is uniformly stable is proven for the case of rectangular meshes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 739–763, 1999     

Analysis and finite element simulations of a second‐order fluid model in a bounded domain

This article is concerned with the equations governing the steady motion of a viscoelastic incompressible second‐order fluid in a bounded domain. A new proof of existence and uniqueness of strong solutions is given. In addition, using appropriate finite element methods to approximate a coupled equivalent problem, sharp error estimates are obtained using a fixed point argument. The method is applied to the two‐dimensional lid‐driven cavity problem, at low Reynolds number and in a certain range of values of the viscoelastic parameters, to analyze the combined effects of inertia and viscoelasticity on the flow. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2007     

Stabilized multiphysics finite element method with Crank–Nicolson scheme for a poroelasticity model

In the paper, we propose a stabilized multiphysics finite element method with Crank–Nicolson scheme for a poroelasticity model. The method can eliminate the locking phenomenon and reveal the multi‐physical process. The lowest equal order finite element pair is used to reduce the computational cost. Furthermore, the method needs no constraint condition Δt = O(h²) and achieves optimal convergent order. Numerical tests are provided to illustrate the optimal accuracy and good performance in eliminating locking phenomenon of the method.