Mixed formulation of the two‐layer quasi‐geostrophic equations of the ocean

In this article, we propose a mixed variational formulation for the streamfunction vorticity potential form for the two‐layer quasi‐geostrophic model of the ocean. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions of the mixed variational problem. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 489–502, 1999     

Numerical solutions of the space‐time fractional advection‐dispersion equation

Fractional advection‐dispersion equations are used in groundwater hydrologhy to model the transport of passive tracers carried by fluid flow in a porous medium. In this paper we present two reliable algorithms, the Adomian decomposition method and variational iteration method, to construct numerical solutions of the space‐time fractional advection‐dispersion equation in the form of a rabidly convergent series with easily computable components. The fractional derivatives are described in the Caputo sense. Some examples are given. Numerical results show that the two approaches are easy to implement and accurate when applied to space‐time fractional advection‐dispersion equations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2008     

First‐Order system least squares for generalized‐Newtonian coupled Stokes‐Darcy flow

The coupled problem for a generalized Newtonian Stokes flow in one domain and a generalized Newtonian Darcy flow in a porous medium is studied in this work. Both flows are treated as a first‐order system in a stress‐velocity formulation for the Stokes problem and a volumetric flux‐hydraulic potential formulation for the Darcy problem. The coupling along an interface is done using the well‐known Beavers–Joseph–Saffman interface condition. A least squares finite element method is used for the numerical approximation of the solution. It is shown that under some assumptions on the viscosity the error is bounded from above and below by the least squares functional. An adaptive refinement strategy is examined in several numerical examples where boundary singularities are present. Due to the nonlinearity of the problem a Gauss–Newton method is used to iteratively solve the problem. It is shown that the linear variational problems arising in the Gauss–Newton method are well posed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1150–1173, 2015     

Decoupled energy‐law preserving numerical schemes for the Cahn–Hilliard–Darcy system

We study two novel decoupled energy‐law preserving and mass‐conservative numerical schemes for solving the Cahn‐Hilliard‐Darcy system which models two‐phase flow in porous medium or in a Hele–Shaw cell. In the first scheme, the velocity in the Cahn–Hilliard equation is treated explicitly so that the Darcy equation is completely decoupled from the Cahn–Hilliard equation. In the second scheme, an intermediate velocity is used in the Cahn–Hilliard equation which allows for the decoupling. We show that the first scheme preserves a discrete energy law with a time‐step constraint, while the second scheme satisfies an energy law without any constraint and is unconditionally stable. Ample numerical experiments are performed to gauge the efficiency and robustness of our scheme. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 936–954, 2016     

Homogenization of a two‐phase incompressible fluid in crossflow filtration through a porous medium

We study the homogenization of a slow viscous two‐phase incompressible flow in a domain consisting of a free fluid domain, a porous medium, and the interface between them. We take into account the capillary forces on the fluid‐fluid interfaces. We construct boundary layers describing the flow at the interface between the free fluid and the porous medium. We derive a macroscopic model with a viscous two‐phase fluid in the free domain, a coupled Darcy law connecting two‐phase velocities in the porous medium, and boundary conditions at the permeable interface between the free fluid domain and the porous medium.     

Two‐phase flows in karstic geometry

Multiphase flow phenomena are ubiquitous. Common examples include coupled atmosphere and ocean system (air and water), oil reservoir (water, oil, and gas), and cloud and fog (water vapor, water, and air). Multiphase flows also play an important role in many engineering and environmental science applications. In some applications such as flows in unconfined karst aquifers, karst oil reservoir, proton membrane exchange fuel cell, multiphase flows in conduits, and in porous media must be considered together. Geometric configurations that contain both conduit (or vug) and porous media are termed karstic geometry. Despite the importance of the subject, little work has been performed on multiphase flows in karstic geometry. In this paper, we present a family of phase–field (diffusive interface) models for two‐phase flow in karstic geometry. These models together with the associated interface boundary conditions are derived utilizing Onsager's extremum principle. The models derived enjoy physically important energy laws. A uniquely solvable numerical scheme that preserves the associated energy law is presented as well. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Variational Phase Field Modeling of Fracture Caused by Fluid Transport in Poroelastic Solids

The numerical modeling of failure mechanisms due to fracture based on sharp crack discontinuities is extremely demanding and suffers in situations with complex crack topologies. This drawback can be overcome by recently developed diffusive crack modeling concepts, which are based on the introduction of a crack phase field. Such an approach is conceptually in line with gradient-extended continuum damage models which include internal length scales. In this paper, we extend our recently outlined mechanical framework [1–3] towards the phase field modeling of fracture in the coupled problem of fluid transport in deforming porous media. Here, extremely complex crack patterns may occur due to drying or hydraulic induced fracture, the so called fracking. We develop new variational potentials for Biot-type fluid transport in porous media at finite deformations coupled with phase field fracture. It is shown, that this complex coupled multi-field problem is related to an intrinsic mixed variational principle for the evolution problem. This principle determines the rates of deformation, fracture phase field and fluid content along with the fluid potential. We develop a robust computational implementation of the coupled problem based on the potentials mentioned above and demonstrate its performance by the numerical simulation of complex fracture patterns. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Least‐squares mixed Galerkin formulation for variable‐coefficient fractional differential equations with D‐N boundary condition

We propose a least‐squares mixed variational formulation for variable‐coefficient fractional differential equations (FDEs) subject to general Dirichlet‐Neumann boundary condition by splitting the FDE as a system of variable‐coefficient integer‐order equation and constant‐coefficient FDE. The main contributions of this article are to establish a new regularity theory of the solution expressed in terms of the smoothness of the right‐hand side only and to develop a decoupled and optimally convergent finite element procedure for the unknown and intermediate variables. Numerical analysis and experiments are conducted to verify these findings.     

Analysis of a 3‐node mixed‐shear‐projected triangular element method for Reissner–Mindlin plates

This article analyses an existing 3‐node hybrid triangular element, called MiSP3, for Reissner–Mindlin plates which behaves robustly in numerical benchmark tests (Ayad, Dhatt, and Batoz, Int J Numer Method Eng 42 (1998), 1149–1179). Based on Hellinger‐Reissner variational principle and the mixed shear interpolation/projection technique of MITC family, the MiSP3 element uses continuous piecewise linear polynomials for the approximations of displacements and a piecewise‐independent equilibrium mode for the approximations of bending moments/shear stresses. Due to local elimination of the parameters of moments/stresses, the element is almost of the same computational cost as the conforming linear triangular displacement element. We derive uniform stability and convergence results with respect to the plate thickness. The main tools of our analysis are the self‐equilibrium relation of the moments/stresses approximations, the properties of the mixed shear interpolation and the discrete Helmholtz decomposition of the shear stress approximation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 241–258, 2017     

Rate‐independent processes in viscous solids at small strains

The so‐called generalized standard solids (of Halphen–Nguyen type) involving also activated typically rate‐independent processes such as plasticity, damage, or phase transformations are described as a system of a momentum equilibrium equation and a variational inequality for inelastic evolution of internal‐parameter variables. Various definitions of solutions are examined, especially from the viewpoint of the ability to combine rate‐independent processes and other rate‐dependent phenomena, as viscosity or also inertia. If those rate‐dependent phenomena are suppressed, then the system becomes fully rate‐independent. Illustrative examples are presented as well. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diffusion in poro‐plastic media

A model is developed for the flow of a slightly compressible fluid through a saturated inelastic porous medium. The initial‐boundary‐value problem is a system that consists of the diffusion equation for the fluid coupled to the momentum equation for the porous solid together with a constitutive law which includes a possibly hysteretic relation of elasto‐visco‐plastic type. The variational form of this problem in Hilbert space is a non‐linear evolution equation for which the existence and uniqueness of a global strong solution is proved by means of monotonicity methods. Various degenerate situations are permitted, such as incompressible fluid, negligible porosity, or a quasi‐static momentum equation. The essential sufficient conditions for the well‐posedness of the system consist of an ellipticity condition on the term for diffusion of fluid and either a viscous or a hardening assumption in the constitutive relation for the porous solid. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element method for two‐phase immiscible flow

An explicit finite element method for numerically solving the two‐phase, immiscible, incompressible flow in a porous medium in two space dimensions is analyzed. The method is based on the use of a mixed finite element method for the approximation of the velocity and pressure a discontinuous upwinding finite element method for the approximation of the saturation. The mixed method gives an approximate velocity field in the precise form needed by the discontinuous method, which is trivially conservative and fully parallelizable in computation. It is proven that it converges to the exact solution. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 407–416, 1999     

Two‐grid variational multiscale algorithms for the stationary incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations with friction boundary conditions

Two‐grid variational multiscale (VMS) algorithms for the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations with friction boundary conditions are presented in this article. First, one‐grid VMS algorithm is used to solve this problem and some error estimates are derived. Then, two‐grid VMS algorithms are proposed and analyzed. The algorithms consist of nonlinear problem on coarse grid and linearized problem (Stokes problem or Oseen problem) on fine grid. Moreover, the stability and convergence of the present algorithms are established. Finally, Numerical results are shown to confirm the theoretical analysis. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 546–569, 2017     

Generalized nonlinear variational‐like inequalities in reflexive Banach spaces

In this paper, we introduce and study a new class of generalized nonlinear mixed variational‐like inequalities in reflexive Banach spaces. By applying the auxiliary principle technique and the minimax inequality, we establish the existence and uniqueness theorems for solutions of generalized nonlinear mixed variational‐like inequalities. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An optimal‐order estimate for MMOC‐MFEM approximations to porous medium flow

Mathematical models used to describe porous medium flow lead to coupled systems of time‐dependent partial differential equations. Standard methods tend to generate numerical solutions with nonphysical oscillations or numerical dispersion along with spurious grid‐orientation effect. The MMOC‐MFEM time‐stepping procedure, in which the modified method of characteristics (MMOC) is used to solve the transport equation and a mixed finite element method (MFEM) is used for the pressure equation, simulates porous medium flow accurately even if large spatial grids and time steps are used. In this article we prove an optimal‐order error estimate for a family of MMOC‐MFEM approximations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

Multidomain mixed variational analysis of transport flow through elastoviscoplastic porous media

Multidomain mixed nonlinear transport and flow phenomena through elastoviscoplastic porous media is variationally analyzed. Mixed variational formulations of the poro-mechanical system are established via composition duality methods, determining solvability results on the basis of duality principles. The conformation of the coupled physical system corresponds to constrained transport processes driven by a compressible Darcian flow, in a quasistatic elastoviscoplastic deformable subsurface porous media, modeled variationally by primal evolution mixed transport and consolidation, and dual evolution mixed flow and quasistatic deformation. For parallel computing, non-overlapping multidomain decomposition methods based on variational macro-hybridization, are presented and discussed, providing a natural multi-physics approach for the coupled transport flow and deformation system. For computational realizations, internal variational macro-hybrid mixed semi-discrete approximations are given, as well as primal and dual fully discrete semi-implicit time marching schemes. Furthermore, the corresponding coupled transport-flow-deformation system is concluded and analyzed, proposing natural resolution coupling techniques.     

Evolution of microstructure in unstable porous media flow: A relaxational approach

We study the flow of two immiscible fluids of different density and mobility in a porous medium. If the heavier phase lies above the lighter one, the interface is observed to be unstable. The two phases start to mix on a mesoscopic scale and the mixing zone grows in time—an example of evolution of microstructure. A simple set of assumptions on the physics of this two‐phase flow in a porous medium leads to a mathematically ill‐posed problem—when used to establish a continuum free boundary problem. We propose and motivate a relaxation of this “nonconvex” constraint of a phase distribution with a sharp interface on a macroscopic scale. We prove that this approach leads to a mathematically well‐posed problem that predicts shape and evolution of the mixing profile as a function of the density difference and mobility quotient. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Quasi‐subdifferential operator approach to elliptic variational and quasi‐variational inequalities

We prove an existence theorem for an abstract operator equation associated with a quasi‐subdifferential operator and then apply it to concrete elliptic variational and quasi‐variational inequalities. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Applications of variational methods to Sturm–Liouville boundary‐value problem for fourth‐order impulsive differential equations

In this paper, we study Sturm–Liouville boundary‐value problem for fourth‐order impulsive differential equations. Applying variational methods, several new existence results are obtained. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.