Convergence of higher order upwind finite volume schemes on unstructured grids for scalar conservation laws in several space dimensions

Summary. We prove convergence of a class of higher order upwind finite volume schemes on unstructured grids for scalar conservation laws in several space dimensions. The result is applied to the discontinuous Galerkin method due to Cockburn, Hou and Shu. Received April 15, 1993 / Revised version received March 13, 1995     

A fictitious domain approach to the numerical solution of PDEs in stochastic domains

We present an efficient method for the numerical realization of elliptic PDEs in domains depending on random variables. Domains are bounded, and have finite fluctuations. The key feature is the combination of a fictitious domain approach and a polynomial chaos expansion. The PDE is solved in a larger, fixed domain (the fictitious domain), with the original boundary condition enforced via a Lagrange multiplier acting on a random manifold inside the new domain. A (generalized) Wiener expansion is invoked to convert such a stochastic problem into a deterministic one, depending on an extra set of real variables (the stochastic variables). Discretization is accomplished by standard mixed finite elements in the physical variables and a Galerkin projection method with numerical integration (which coincides with a collocation scheme) in the stochastic variables. A stability and convergence analysis of the method, as well as numerical results, are provided. The convergence is “spectral” in the polynomial chaos order, in any subdomain which does not contain the random boundaries.     

A convergent finite element formulation for transonic flow

Summary A finite element formulation for the full potential equation in the case of two-dimensional transonic flow is presented. The formulation is based on an optimal control approach developed by Glowinski and Pironneau. The solution of the full potential equation is obtained by a minimization problem. Using a new compactness result it is possible to prove convergence for the solutions of the minimization problem. The a priori assumption of existence and uniqueness of a weak solution of the full potential equation satisfying an entropy condition implies that the limit function must be the solution. It is possible to extend the convergence result to the case of three-dimensional transonic potential flow.The research reported here was supported by a grant from the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk, Federal Republic of Germany. It is a part of the doctoral thesis of the above author, Universität Stuttgart 1989     

A variational formulation of anisotropic geometric evolution equations in higher dimensions

We present a novel variational formulation of fully anisotropic motion by surface diffusion and mean curvature flow in , d ≥ 2. This new formulation leads to an unconditionally stable, fully discrete, parametric finite element approximation in the case d = 2 or 3. The resulting scheme has very good properties with respect to the distribution of mesh points and, if applicable, volume conservation. This is demonstrated by several numerical experiments for d = 3, including regularized crystalline mean curvature flow and regularized crystalline surface diffusion.     

Numerical method of mixed finite volume-modified upwind fractional step difference for three-dimensional semiconductor device transient behavior problems

Transient behavior of three-dimensional semiconductor device with heat conduction is described by a coupled mathematical system of four quasi-linear partial differential equations with initial-boundary value conditions. The electric potential is defined by an elliptic equation and it appears in the following three equations via the electric field intensity. The electron concentration and the hole concentration are determined by convection-dominated diffusion equations and the temperature is interpreted by a heat conduction equation. A mixed finite volume element approximation, keeping physical conservation law, is used to get numerical values of the electric potential and the accuracy is improved one order. Two concentrations and the heat conduction are computed by a fractional step method combined with second-order upwind differences. This method can overcome numerical oscillation, dispersion and decreases computational complexity. Then a three-dimensional problem is solved by computing three successive one-dimensional problems where the method of speedup is used and the computational work is greatly shortened. An optimal second-order error estimate in L² norm is derived by using prior estimate theory and other special techniques of partial differential equations. This type of mass-conservative parallel method is important and is most valuable in numerical analysis and application of semiconductor device.     

Parallel linear multigrid by agglomeration for the acceleration of 3D compressible flow calculations on unstructured meshes

In this paper, we report on our recent efforts concerning the design of parallel linear multigrid algorithms for the acceleration of 3-dimensional compressible flow calculations. The multigrid strategy adopted in this study relies on a volume agglomeration principle for the construction of the coarse grids starting from a fine discretization of the computational domain. In the past, this strategy has mainly been studied in the 2-dimensional case for the solution of the Euler equations (see Lallemand et al. [6]), the laminar Navier–Stokes equations (see Mavriplis and Venkatakrishnan [12]) and the turbulent Navier–Stokes equations (see Carré [1], Mavriplis [10] and Francescatto and Dervieux [4]). A first extension to the 3-dimensional case is presented by Mavriplis and Venkatakrishnan in [13] and more recently in Mavriplis and Pirzadeh [11]. The main contribution of the present work is twofold: on the one hand, we demonstrate the successful extension and application of the multigrid by a volume agglomeration principle to the acceleration of complex 3-dimensional flow calculations on unstructured tetrahedral meshes and, on the other hand, we enhance further the efficiency of the methodology through its adaptation to parallel architectures. Moreover, a nontrivial aspect of this work is that the corresponding software developments are taking place in an existing industrial flow solver. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Optimal error estimates of a decoupled scheme based on two-grid finite element for mixed Navier-Stokes/Darcy Model

Although the two-grid finite element decoupled scheme for mixed Navier-Stokes/Darcy model in literatures has given the numerical results of optimal convergence order, the theoretical analysis only obtain the optimal error order for the porous media flow and a non-optimal error order for the fluid flow. In this article, we give a more rigorous of the error analysis for the fluid flow and obtain the optimal error estimates of the velocity and the pressure.     

A semi‐discrete defect correction finite element method for unsteady incompressible magnetohydrodynamics equations

In this report, we give a semi‐discrete defect correction finite element method for the unsteady incompressible magnetohydrodynamics equations. The defect correction method is an iterative improvement technique for increasing the accuracy of a numerical solution without applying a grid refinement. Firstly, the nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics equations is solved with an artificial viscosity term. Then, the numerical solutions are improved on the same grid by a linearized defect‐correction technique. Then, we give the numerical analysis including stability analysis and error analysis. The numerical analysis proves that our method is stable and has an optimal convergence rate. In order to show the effect of our method, some numerical results are shown. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.