An accurate solution procedure for fluid flow with natural convection

We consider the Boussinesq model of buoyancy driven fluid flows. This nonlinear system is solved numerically using a two level finite element method. On the first level, a nonlinear system is solved on a very coarse mesh. Thereafter, a linear system is solved on a fine mesh.

In a standard approach, one might obtain the numerical solution from a discretization of the original, nonlinear system using the same fine mesh.

Both solutions are of equal order of accuracy if the mesh widths are properly balanced. Therefore the two level method is very efficient.     

A relaxation-based approach to damage modeling

Common material models that take into account softening effects due to damage have the problem of ill-posed boundary value problems if no regularization is applied. This condition leads to a non-unique solution for the resulting algebraic system and a strong mesh dependence of the numerical results. A possible solution approach to prevent this problem is to apply regularization techniques that take into account the non-local behavior of the damage [1]. For this purpose a field function is often used to couple the local damage parameter to a non-local level, in which differences between the local and non-local parameter as well as the gradient of the non-local parameter can be penalized. In contrast, we present a novel approach [2] to regularization that no longer needs a non-local level but directly provides mesh-independent results. Due to the new variational approach we are also able to improve the calculation times and convergence behavior. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Advanced Solution Strategies for r-Adaptive Finite Element Analysis

In Finite Element Analysis (FEA) the discretisation has wide influence on the quality of the analysis. With r-adaptive FEA it is aimed to improve the finite element solution by finding the optimal mesh without changing the mesh connectivity and the order of the elements. Thus, this approach belongs to the group of mesh-moving methods. The r-adaptivity approach presented is governed by energy minimisation and therefore is called energy-based. It is built upon a variational Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (vALE) formulation whereby the potential energy is varied with respect to spatial and material coordinates. However, even for simple problems the Hessian is likely to be singular or indefinite. This complicates the application of solution schemes based on Newton's method. Motivated by the approaches of [1–4], we try to find appropriate numeric methods for r-adaptivity. For this purpose, we study the numerical performance of a primal barrier scheme, of an augmented Lagrange barrier scheme and the primal-dual interior point package IPOPT. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Strategies for the Computation of Configurational Forces in Dissipative Media

Configurational forces can be interpreted as driving forces on material inhomogeneities such as crack tips. In dissipative media the total configurational force on an inhomogeneity consists of an elastic contribution and a contribution due to the dissipative processes in the material. For the computation of discrete configurational forces acting at the nodes of a finite element mesh, the elastic and dissipative contributions must be evaluated at integration point level. While the evaluation of the elastic contribution is straightforward, the evaluation of the dissipative part is faced with certain difficulties. This is because gradients of internal variables are necessary in order to compute the dissipative part of the configurational force. For the sake of efficiency, these internal variables are usually treated as local history data at integration point level in finite element (FE) implementations. Thus, the history data needs to be projected to the nodes of the FE mesh in order to compute the gradients by means of shape function interpolations of nodal data as it is standard practice. However, this is a rather cumbersome method which does not easily integrate into standard finite element frameworks. An alternative approach which facilitates the computation of gradients of local history data is investigated in this work. This approach is based on the definition of subelements within the elements of the FE mesh and allows for a straightforward integration of the configurational force computation into standard finite element software. The suitability and the numerical accuracy of different projection approaches and the subelement technique are discussed and analyzed exemplarily within the context of a crystal plasticity model. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A self-adaptive moving mesh method for the Camassa-Holm equation

A self-adaptive moving mesh method is proposed for the numerical simulations of the Camassa-Holm equation. It is an integrable scheme in the sense that it possesses the exact N-soliton solution. It is named a self-adaptive moving mesh method, because the non-uniform mesh is driven and adapted automatically by the solution. Once the non-uniform mesh is evolved, the solution is determined by solving a tridiagonal linear system. Due to these two superior features of the method, several test problems give very satisfactory results even if by using a small number of grid points.     

Quadrilateral surface meshes without self-intersecting dual cycles for hexahedral mesh generation

Several promising approaches for hexahedral mesh generation work as follows: Given a prescribed quadrilateral surface mesh they first build the combinatorial dual of the hexahedral mesh. This dual mesh is converted into the primal hexahedral mesh, and finally embedded and smoothed into the given domain. Two such approaches, the modified whisker weaving algorithm by Folwell and Mitchell, as well as a method proposed by the author, rely on an iterative elimination of certain dual cycles in the surface mesh. An intuitive interpretation of the latter method is that cycle eliminations correspond to complete sheets of hexahedra in the volume mesh.

Although these methods can be shown to work in principle, the quality of the generated meshes heavily relies on the dual cycle structure of the given surface mesh. In particular, it seems that difficulties in the hexahedral meshing process and poor mesh qualities are often due to self-intersecting dual cycles. Unfortunately, all previous work on quadrilateral surface mesh generation has focused on quality issues of the surface mesh alone but has disregarded its suitability for a high-quality extension to a three-dimensional mesh.

In this paper, we develop a new method to generate quadrilateral surface meshes without self-intersecting dual cycles. This method reuses previous b-matching problem formulations of the quadrilateral mesh refinement problem. The key insight is that the b-matching solution can be decomposed into a collection of simple cycles and paths of multiplicity two, and that these cycles and paths can be consistently embedded into the dual surface mesh.

A second tool uses recursive splitting of components into simpler subcomponents by insertion of internal two-manifolds. We show that such a two-manifold can be meshed with quadrilaterals such that the induced dual cycle structure of each subcomponent is free of self-intersections if the original component satisfies this property. Experiments show that we can achieve hexahedral meshes with a good quality.     

A TWO-GRID METHOD FOR THE C0 INTERIOR PENALTY DISCRETIZATION OF THE MONGE-AMP(E)RE EQUATION

The purpose of this paper is to analyze an efficient method for the solution of the nonlinear system resulting from the discretization of the elliptic Monge-Ampère equation by a $C^0$ interior penalty method with Lagrange finite elements. We consider the two-grid method for nonlinear equations which consists in solving the discrete nonlinear system on a coarse mesh and using that solution as initial guess for one iteration of Newton's method on a finer mesh. Thus both steps are inexpensive. We give quasi-optimal $W^{1,\infty}$ error estimates for the discretization and estimate the difference between the interior penalty solution and the two-grid numerical solution. Numerical experiments confirm the computational efficiency of the approach compared to Newton's method on the fine mesh.     

An additive Schwarz method for a stationary convection-diffusion problem

In this paper, we consider an additive Schwarz method applied to a linear, second order, nonsymmetric, indefinite problem. We discuss the solution of linear system of algebraic equations that arise from the streamline method for the above problem. An alternative linear system, which has the same solution as the system obtained by the streamline method, is derived and the GMRES method is used to solve this system. We show that the rate of convergence does not depend on the mesh size, nor on the number of local problems if the coarse mesh is fine enough.     

A comparison of numerical integration rules for the meshless local Petrov–Galerkin method

The meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) method is a mesh-free procedure for solving partial differential equations. However, the benefit in avoiding the mesh construction and refinement is counterbalanced by the use of complicated non polynomial shape functions with subsequent difficulties, and a potentially large cost, when implementing numerical integration schemes. In this paper we describe and compare some numerical quadrature rules with the aim at preserving the MLPG solution accuracy and at the same time reducing its computational cost.     

Stochastic Domain Decomposition for Time Dependent Adaptive Mesh Generation

The efficient generation of meshes is an important component in the numerical solution of problems in physics and engineering. Of interest are situations where global mesh quality and a tight coupling to the solution of the physical partial differential equation (PDE) is important. We consider parabolic PDE mesh generation and present a method for the construction of adaptive meshes in two spatial dimensions using stochastic domain decomposition that is suitable for an implementation in a multi- or many-core environment. Methods for mesh generation on periodic domains are also provided. The mesh generator is coupled to a time dependent physical PDE and the system is evolved using an alternating solution procedure. The method uses the stochastic representation of the exact solution of a parabolic linear mesh generator to find the location of an adaptive mesh along the (artificial) subdomain interfaces. The deterministic evaluation of the mesh over each subdomain can then be obtained completely independently using the probabilistically computed solutions as boundary conditions. A small scaling study is provided to demonstrate the parallel performance of this stochastic domain decomposition approach to mesh generation. We demonstrate the approach numerically and compare the mesh obtained with the corresponding single domain mesh using a representative mesh quality measure.     

A regularization approach for damage models based on a displacement gradient

Common material models that take into account softening effects due to damage encounter the problem of ill-posed boundary value problems if no regularization is applied. This condition leads to a non-unique solution for the resulting algebraic system and a strong mesh dependence of the numerical results. A possible solution approach to prevent this problem is to apply regularization techniques that take into account the non-local behavior of the damage [1]. For this purpose a field function is used to couple the local damage parameter to a non-local level, in which differences between the local and non-local parameter as well as the gradient of the non-local parameter can be penalized. In contrast, we present a novel approach to regularization in which no field function is needed [2]. Hereto, the regularization is carried out by means of the divergence of the displacements and no additional quantity is necessary since the displacements are already defined on a non-local level. The idea is that with an increasing value of the damage the element's volume will increase as well. This is a result of the softening due to the occurring damage. The increasing volume can be measured by the divergence of the displacements which can be penalized by an additional energy part. The lack of any field function and the regularization by the use of the divergence of the displacements entails several numerical advantages: the computational effort is considerably reduced and the convergence behavior is improved as well. Naturally, the numerical results are mesh independent due to the regularization. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A group based solution strategy for multi-physics simulations in parallel

Multi-physics simulation often requires the solution of a suite of interacting physical phenomena, the nature of which may vary both spatially and in time. For example, in a casting simulation there is thermo-mechanical behaviour in the structural mould, whilst in the cast, as the metal cools and solidifies, the buoyancy induced flow ceases and stresses begin to develop. When using a single code to simulate such problems it is conventional to solve each ‘physics’ component over the whole single mesh, using definitions of material properties or source terms to ensure that a solved variable remains zero in the region in which the associated physical phenomenon is not active. Although this method is secure, in that it enables any and all the ‘active’ physics to be captured across the whole domain, it is computationally inefficient in both scalar and parallel. An alternative, known as the ‘group’ solver approach, involves more formal domain decomposition whereby specific combinations of physics are solved for on prescribed sub-domains. The ‘group’ solution method has been implemented in a three-dimensional finite volume, unstructured mesh multi-physics code, which is parallelised, employing a multi-phase mesh partitioning capability which attempts to optimise the load balance across the target parallel HPC system. The potential benefits of the ‘group’ solution strategy are evaluated on a class of multi-physics problems involving thermo-fluid–structural interaction on both a single and multi-processor systems. In summary, the ‘group’ solver is a third faster on a single processor than the single domain strategy and preserves its scalability on a parallel cluster system.     

A constrained optimization approach to finite element mesh smoothing

The quality of a finite element solution has been shown to be affected by the quality of the underlying mesh. A poor mesh may lead to unstable and/or inaccurate finite element approximations. Mesh quality is often characterized by the “smoothness” or “shape” of the elements (triangles in 2-D or tetrahedra in 3-D). Most automatic mesh generators produce an initial mesh where the aspect ratio of the elements are unacceptably high. In this paper, a new approach to produce acceptable quality meshes from a topologically valid initial mesh is presented. Given an initial mesh (nodal coordinates and element connectivity), a “smooth” final mesh is obtained by solving a constrained optimization problem. The variables for the iterative optimization procedure are the nodal coordinates (excluding, the boundary nodes) of the finite element mesh, and appropriate bounds are imposed on these to prevent an unacceptable finite element mesh. Examples are given of the application of the above method for 2- and 3-D meshes generated using automatic mesh generators. Results indicate that the new method not only yields better quality elements when compared with the traditional Laplacian smoothing, but also guarantees a valid mesh unlike the Laplacian method.     

A tracking method for gas flow into vacuum based on the vacuum Riemann problem

In this paper, a tracking method is proposed for the expansion of gas flow into vacuum which may be combined with numerical methods for the equations of gas dynamics, the Euler equations. This tracking prevents the difficulties of the numerical approximation introduced by the vacuum as a region where the Euler equations are not valid due to the failure of the continuum assumption. The tracking algorithm is based on the exact or an approximate solution of the vacuum Riemann problem. This is the initial value problem with two constant states, one being the gas and the other the vacuum state, and a limit case of the usual Riemann problem. In this approach, the gas–vacuum boundary is sharply resolved within one mesh interval. For a test problem, the numerical results of gas flow into vacuum are presented which indicate that the gas vacuum boundary is captured very well.     

An improved nonlocal Gurson model for plastic porous solids,with an application to the simulation of ductile rupture tests

In recent work, the author and co-workers have developed a new methodology to delocalize the damage in Gurson model for porous ductile materials. The motivation was to rectify the difficulties connected to the excessive damage smoothing arising in the practical use of the original damage delocalization method. The new approach consists of delocalizing the logarithm of the damage instead of the damage itself. The relevance of the new method to avoid mesh size effects and satisfactorily reproduce typical ductile fracture experiments are explored in this work.     

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.     

Numerical instabilities in structural optimization – analogy between topology & shape design problems

The formulation of structural optimization problems on the basis of the finite–element–method often leads to numerical instabilities resulting in non–optimal designs, which turn out to be difficult to realize from the engineering point of view. In the case of topology optimization problems the formation of designs characterized by oscillating density distributions such as the well–known “checkerboard–patterns” can be observed, whereas the solution of shape optimization problems often results in unfavourable designs with non–smooth boundary shapes caused by high–frequency oscillations of the boundary shape functions. Furthermore a strong dependence of the obtained designs on the finite–element–mesh can be observed in both cases. In this context we have already shown, that the topology design problem can be regularized by penalizing spatial oscillations of the density function by means of a penalty–approach based on the density gradient. In the present paper we apply the idea of problem regularization by penalizing oscillations of the design variable to overcome the numerical difficulties related to the shape design problem, where an analogous approach restricting the boundary surface can be introduced. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Meshfree modeling and analysis of physical fields in heterogeneous media

Continuous and discrete variations in material properties lead to substantial difficulties for most mesh-based methods for modeling and analysis of physical fields. The meshfree method described in this paper relies on distance fields to boundaries and to material features in order to represent variations of material properties as well as to satisfy prescribed boundary conditions. The method is theoretically complete in the sense that all distributions of physical properties and all physical fields are represented by generalized Taylor series expansions in terms of powers of distance fields. We explain how such Taylor series can be used to construct solution structures – spaces of functions satisfying the prescribed boundary conditions exactly and containing the necessary degrees of freedom to satisfy additional constraints. Fully implemented numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

二维非线性对流扩散方程特征有限元的两重网络算法

针对二维非线性对流扩散方程,构造了特征有限元两重网格算法．该算法只需要在粗网格上进行非线性迭代运算,而在所需要求解的细网格上进行一次线性运算即可．对于非线性对流占优扩散方程,不仅可以消除因对流占优项引起的数值振荡现象,还可以加快收敛速度、提高计算效率．误差估计表明只要选取粗细网格步长满足一定的关系式,就可以使两重网格解与有限元解保持同样的计算精度．算例显示:两重网格算法比特征有限元算法的收敛速度明显加快．