Iterative solvers and stabilisation for mixed electrostatic and magnetostatic formulations

Mixed electrostatic and magnetostatic finite element formulations are considered. Solution methods for the resulting indefinite algebraic systems are investigated. Methods developed for the mixed formulations of the Stokes equations are modified in order to apply to the Maxwell equations: an efficient block preconditioner is proposed and a stabilised formulation is described. The different methods are applied to 2D and 3D examples.     

Modified edge finite elements for photonic crystals

We consider Maxwell’s equations with periodic coefficients as it is usually done for the modeling of photonic crystals. Using Bloch/Floquet theory, the problem reduces in a standard way to a modification of the Maxwell cavity eigenproblem with periodic boundary conditions. Following [8], a modification of edge finite elements is considered for the approximation of the band gap. The method can be used with meshes of tetrahedrons or parallelepipeds. A rigorous analysis of convergence is presented, together with some preliminary numerical results in 2D, which fully confirm the robustness of the method. The analysis uses well established results on the discrete compactness for edge elements, together with new sharper interpolation estimates.     

A discontinuous Galerkin method on refined meshes for the two-dimensional time-harmonic Maxwell equations in composite materials

In this paper, a discontinuous Galerkin method for the two-dimensional time-harmonic Maxwell equations in composite materials is presented. The divergence constraint is taken into account by a regularized variational formulation and the tangential and normal jumps of the discrete solution at the element interfaces are penalized. Due to an appropriate mesh refinement near exterior and interior corners, the singular behaviour of the electromagnetic field is taken into account. Optimal error estimates in a discrete energy norm and in the L²$L^2$-norm are proved in the case where the exact solution is singular.     

Algebraic convergence for anisotropic edge elements in polyhedral domains

We study approximation errors for the h-version of Nédélec edge elements on anisotropically refined meshes in polyhedra. Both tetrahedral and hexahedral elements are considered, and the emphasis is on obtaining optimal convergence rates in the H(curl) norm for higher order elements. Two types of estimates are presented: First, interpolation error estimates for functions in anisotropic weighted Sobolev spaces. Here we consider not only the H(curl)-conforming Nédélec elements, but also the H(div)-conforming Raviart-Thomas elements which appear naturally in the discrete version of the de Rham complex. Our technique is to transport error estimates from the reference element to the physical element via highly anisotropic coordinate transformations. Second, Galerkin error estimates for the standard H(curl) approximation of time harmonic Maxwell equations. Here we use the anisotropic weighted Sobolev regularity of the solution on domains with three-dimensional edges and corners. We also prove the discrete compactness property needed for the convergence of the Maxwell eigenvalue problem. Our results generalize those of [40] to the case of polyhedral corners and higher order elements.     

Numerical verifications of solutions for elliptic equations in nonconvex polygonal domains

Summary In this paper, methods for numerical verifications of solutions for elliptic equations in nonconvex polygonal domains are studied. In order to verify solutions using computer, it is necessary to determine some constants which appear in a priori error estimations. We propose some methods for determination of these constants. In numerical examples, calculating these constants for anL-shaped domain, we verify the solution of a nonlinear elliptic equation.     

Numerical method for verifying the existence and local uniqueness of a double turning point for a radially symmetric solution of the perturbed Gelfand equation

A numerical verification method to confirm the existence and local uniqueness of a double turning point for a radially symmetric solution of the perturbed Gelfand equation is presented. Using certain systems of equations corresponding to a double turning point, we derive a sufficient condition for its existence whose satisfaction can be verified computationally. We describe verification procedures and give a numerical example as a demonstration.     

Explicit local time-stepping methods for Maxwell’s equations

Explicit local time-stepping methods are derived for time dependent Maxwell equations in conducting and non-conducting media. By using smaller time steps precisely where smaller elements in the mesh are located, these methods overcome the bottleneck caused by local mesh refinement in explicit time integrators. When combined with a finite element discretisation in space with an essentially diagonal mass matrix, the resulting discrete time-marching schemes are fully explicit and thus inherently parallel. In a non-conducting source-free medium they also conserve a discrete energy, which provides a rigorous criterion for stability. Starting from the standard leap-frog scheme, local time-stepping methods of arbitrarily high accuracy are derived for non-conducting media. Numerical experiments with a discontinuous Galerkin discretisation in space validate the theory and illustrate the usefulness of the proposed time integration schemes.     

Analysis of the cell boundary element methods for convection dominated convection-diffusion equations

We introduce two kinds of the cell boundary element (CBE) methods for convection dominated convection-diffusion equations: one is the CBE method with the exact bubble function and the other with inexact bubble functions. The main focus of this paper is on inexact bubble CBE methods. For inexact bubble CBE methods we introduce a family of numerical methods depending on two parameters, one for control of interior layers and the other for outflow boundary layers. Stability and convergence analysis are provided and numerical tests for inexact bubble CBEs with various choices of parameters are presented.     

A new fitted operator finite difference method to solve systems of evolutionary reaction-diffusion equations

Abstract

In recent years, fitted operator finite difference methods (FOFDMs) have been developed for numerous types of singularly perturbed ordinary differential equations. The construction of most of these methods differed though the final outcome remained similar. The most crucial aspect was how the difference operator was designed to approximate the differential operator in question. Very often the approaches for constructing these operators had limited scope in the sense that it was difficult to extend them to solve even simple one-dimensional singularly perturbed partial differential equations. However, in some of our most recent work, we have successfully designed a class of FOFDMs and extended them to solve singularly perturbed time-dependent partial differential equations. In this paper, we design and analyze a robust FOFDM to solve a system of coupled singularly perturbed parabolic reaction-diffusion equations. We use the backward Euler method for the semi-discretization in time. An FOFDM is then developed to solve the resulting set of boundary value problems. The proposed method is analyzed for convergence. Our method is uniformly convergent with order one and two, respectively, in time and space, with respect to the perturbation parameters. Some numerical experiments supporting the theoretical investigations are also presented.     

Superconvergent biquadratic finite volume element method for two-dimensional Poisson’s equations

In this paper, a kind of biquadratic finite volume element method is presented for two-dimensional Poisson’s equations by restricting the optimal stress points of biquadratic interpolation as the vertices of control volumes. The method can be effectively implemented by alternating direction technique. It is proved that the method has optimal energy norm error estimates. The superconvergence of numerical gradients at optimal stress points is discussed and it is proved that the method has also superconvergence displacement at nodal points by a modified dual argument technique. Finally, a numerical example verifies the theoretical results and illustrates the effectiveness of the method.     

Galerkin-wavelet methods for two-point boundary value problems

Summary Anti-derivatives of wavelets are used for the numerical solution of differential equations. Optimal error estimates are obtained in the applications to two-point boundary value problems of second order. The orthogonal property of the wavelets is used to construct efficient iterative methods for the solution of the resultant linear algebraic systems. Numerical examples are given.This work was supported by National Science Foundation     

Interior penalty method for the indefinite time-harmonic Maxwell equations

Summary In this paper, we introduce and analyze the interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method for the numerical discretization of the indefinite time-harmonic Maxwell equations in the high-frequency regime. Based on suitable duality arguments, we derive a-priori error bounds in the energy norm and the L²-norm. In particular, the error in the energy norm is shown to converge with the optimal order (h^min{s,}) with respect to the mesh size h, the polynomial degree , and the regularity exponent s of the analytical solution. Under additional regularity assumptions, the L²-error is shown to converge with the optimal order (h⁺¹). The theoretical results are confirmed in a series of numerical experiments.Supported by the EPSRC (Grant GR/R76615).Supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under project 21-068126.02.Supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.     

Finite element methods with numerical quadrature for elliptic problems with smooth interfaces

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of the numerical quadrature on the finite element approximation to the exact solution of elliptic equations with discontinuous coefficients. Due to low global regularity of the solution, it seems difficult to achieve optimal order of convergence with classical finite element methods [Z. Chen, J. Zou, Finite element methods and their convergence for elliptic and parabolic interface problems, Numer. Math. 79 (1998) 175-202]. We derive error estimates in finite element method with quadrature for elliptic interface problems in a two-dimensional convex polygonal domain. Optimal order error estimates in L² and H¹ norms are shown to hold even if the regularity of the solution is low on the whole domain. Finally, numerical experiment for two dimensional test problem is presented in support of our theoretical findings.     

A Zienkiewicz-type finite element applied to fourth-order problems

This paper deals with convergence analysis and applications of a Zienkiewicz-type (Z-type) triangular element, applied to fourth-order partial differential equations. For the biharmonic problem we prove the order of convergence by comparison to a suitable modified Hermite triangular finite element. This method is more natural and it could be applied to the corresponding fourth-order eigenvalue problem. We also propose a simple postprocessing method which improves the order of convergence of finite element eigenpairs. Thus, an a posteriori analysis is presented by means of different triangular elements. Some computational aspects are discussed and numerical examples are given.     

The splitting finite-difference time-domain methods for Maxwell's equations in two dimensions

In this paper, we consider splitting methods for Maxwell's equations in two dimensions. A new kind of splitting finite-difference time-domain methods on a staggered grid is developed. The corresponding schemes consist of only two stages for each time step, which are very simple in computation. The rigorous analysis of the schemes is given. By the energy method, it is proved that the scheme is unconditionally stable and convergent for the problems with perfectly conducting boundary conditions. Numerical dispersion analysis and numerical experiments are presented to show the efficient performance of the proposed methods. Furthermore, the methods are also applied to solve a scattering problem successfully.     

Domain decomposition method and elastic multi-structures: The stiffened plate problem

Summary Domain decomposition methods allow faster solution of partial differential equations in many cases. The efficiency of these methods mainly depends on the variables and operators chosen for the coupling between the subdomains; it is the preconditioning problem. In the modeling of multistructures, the partial differential equations have some specific properties that must be taken into account in a domain decomposition method. Different kinds of elliptic problems modeling stiffened plates in linearized elasticity are compared. One of them is remarkable as far as domain decomposition is concerned, since it is possible to associate particularly efficient preconditioner. A theoretical estimate for the conditioning is given, which is confirmed by several numerical experiments.     

Mixed boundary integral methods for Helmholtz transmission problems

In this paper we propose a hybrid between direct and indirect boundary integral methods to solve a transmission problem for the Helmholtz equation in Lipschitz and smooth domains. We present an exhaustive abstract study of the numerical approximation of the resulting system of boundary integral equations by means of Galerkin methods. Some particular examples of convergent schemes in the smooth case in two dimensions are given. Finally, we extend the results to a thermal scattering problem in a half plane with several obstacles and provide numerical results that illustrate the accuracy of our methods depending on the regularity of the interface.     

A multigrid method for Reissner-Mindlin plates

Summary The numerical solution of the Mindlin-Reissner plate equations by a multigrid method is studied. Difficulties arise only if the thickness parameter is significantly smaller than the mesh parameter. In this case an augmented Lagrangian method is applied to transform the given problem into a sequence of problems with relaxed penalty parameter. With this a parameter independent iteration is obtained.     

A comparison of a posteriori error estimates for biharmonic problems solved by the FEM

The classical a posteriori error estimates are mostly oriented to the use in the finite element h$h$-methods while the contemporary higher-order hp$hp$-methods usually require new approaches in a posteriori error estimation. These methods hold a very important position among adaptive numerical procedures for solving ordinary as well as partial differential equations arising from various technical applications.     

On superconvergence techniques

A brief survey with a bibliography of superconvergence phenomena in finding a numerical solution of differential and integral equations is presented. A particular emphasis is laid on superconvergent schemes for elliptic problems in the plane employing the finite element method.