The stability and convergence of two linearized finite difference schemes for the nonlinear epitaxial growth model

The numerical simulation of the dynamics of the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth is considered in this article. The governing equation is a nonlinear evolutionary equation that is of linear fourth order derivative term and nonlinear second order derivative term in space. The main purpose of this work is to construct and analyze two linearized finite difference schemes for solving the MBE model. The linearized backward Euler difference scheme and the linearized Crank‐Nicolson difference scheme are derived. The unique solvability, unconditional stability and convergence are proved. The linearized Euler scheme is convergent with the convergence order of O(τ + h²) and linearized Crank‐Nicolson scheme is convergent with the convergence order of O(τ² + h²) in discrete L²‐norm, respectively. Numerical stability with respect to the initial conditions is also obtained for both schemes. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the theoretical analysis. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2011     

Compact difference schemes for heat equation with Neumann boundary conditions (II)

This is the further work on compact finite difference schemes for heat equation with Neumann boundary conditions subsequent to the paper, [Sun, Numer Methods Partial Differential Equations (NMPDE) 25 (2009), 1320–1341]. A different compact difference scheme for the one‐dimensional linear heat equation is developed. Truncation errors of the proposed scheme are O(τ² + h⁴) for interior mesh point approximation and O(τ² + h³) for the boundary condition approximation with the uniform partition. The new obtained scheme is similar to the one given by Liao et al. (NMPDE 22 (2006), 600–616), while the major difference lies in no extension of source terms to outside the computational domain any longer. Compared with ones obtained by Zhao et al. (NMPDE 23 (2007), 949–959) and Dai (NMPDE 27 (2011), 436–446), numerical solutions at all mesh points including two boundary points are computed in our new scheme. The significant advantage of this work is to provide a rigorous analysis of convergence order for the obtained compact difference scheme using discrete energy method. The global accuracy is O(τ² + h⁴) in discrete maximum norm, although the spatial approximation order at the Neumann boundary is one lower than that for interior mesh points. The analytical techniques are important and can be successfully used to solve the open problem presented by Sun (NMPDE 25 (2009), 1320–1341), where analyzed theoretical convergence order of the scheme by Liao et al. (NMPDE 22 (2006), 600–616) is only O(τ² + h^3.5) while the numerical accuracy is O(τ² + h⁴), and convergence order of theoretical analysis for the scheme by Zhao et al. (NMPDE 23 (2007), 949–959) is O(τ² + h^2.5), while the actual numerical accuracy is O(τ² + h³). Following the procedure used for the new obtained difference scheme in this work, convergence orders of these two schemes can be proved rigorously to be O(τ² + h⁴) and O(τ² + h³), respectively. Meanwhile, extension to the case involving the nonlinear reaction term is also discussed, and the global convergence order O(τ² + h⁴) is proved. A compact ADI difference scheme for solving two‐dimensional case is derived. Finally, several examples are given to demonstrate the numerical accuracy of new obtained compact difference schemes. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

Supraconvergence and Supercloseness of a Scheme for Elliptic Equations on Nonuniform Grids

In this paper, we study the convergence of a finite difference scheme on nonuniform grids for the solution of second-order elliptic equations with mixed derivatives and variable coefficients in polygonal domains subjected to Dirichlet boundary conditions. We show that the scheme is equivalent to a fully discrete linear finite element approximation with quadrature. It exhibits the phenomenon of supraconvergence, more precisely, for s ∈ [1,2] order O(h ^s )-convergence of the finite difference solution, and its gradient is shown if the exact solution is in the Sobolev space H ^1+s (Ω). In the case of an equation with mixed derivatives in a domain containing oblique boundary sections, the convergence order is reduced to O(h ^3/2?ε) with ε > 0 if u ∈ H ³(Ω). The second-order accuracy of the finite difference gradient is in the finite element context nothing else than the supercloseness of the gradient. For s ∈ {1,2}, the given error estimates are strictly local.     

Finite difference scheme for time-space fractional diffusion equation with fractional boundary conditions

In this paper, the finite difference scheme is developed for the time-space fractional diffusion equation with Dirichlet and fractional boundary conditions. The time and space fractional derivatives are considered in the senses of Caputo and Riemann-Liouville, respectively. The stability and convergence of the proposed numerical scheme are strictly proved, and the convergence order is O(τ^2−α+h²). Numerical experiments are performed to confirm the accuracy and efficiency of our scheme.     

Spline solution of the generalized Burgers'-Fisher equation

A numerical method based on exponential spline and finite difference approximations is developed to solve the generalized Burgers'-Fisher equation. The error analysis, stability and convergence properties of the method are studied via energy method. The method is shown to be unconditionally stable and accurate of orders 𝒪(k?+?kh?+?h ²) and 𝒪(k?+?kh?+?h ⁴). Some test problems are given to demonstrate the applicability of the purposed method numerically. Numerical results verify the theoretical behaviour of convergence properties. The main superiority of the presented scheme is its simplicity and applicability in comparison with the existing well-known methods.     

Asymptotics of the 1/2-dimension,Discrete Airy Equation and its Approximating Differential Equation

A discrete finite difference model is constructed for the Airy equation using a nonstandard scheme formulated by Mickens and Ramadhani. The method of dominant balance is then applied to obtain a first-order difference equation for the solution that increases sufficiently fast as k→∞. We then calculate the corresponding approximating differential equation and obtain its exact solution as well as its “exact” discrete finite difference representation. The application of various symmetry operations allows the determination of the related rapidly decreasing solution and the oscillatory solutions for negative values of x k>=hk, where h=?x.     

Solving the equation −uxx − ϵuyy = f(x,y, u) by an O(h4) finite difference method

The semi‐linear equation −u_xx − ϵu_yy = f(x, y, u) with Dirichlet boundary conditions is solved by an O(h⁴) finite difference method, which has local truncation error O(h²) at the mesh points neighboring the boundary and O(h⁴) at most interior mesh points. It is proved that the finite difference method is O(h⁴) uniformly convergent as h → 0. The method is considered in the form of a system of algebraic equations with a nine diagonal sparse matrix. The system of algebraic equations is solved by an implicit iterative method combined with Gauss elimination. A Mathematica module is designed for the purpose of testing and using the method. To illustrate the method, the equation of twisting a springy rod is solved. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 16: 395–407, 2000     

The numerical analysis of two linearized difference schemes for the Benjamin–Bona–Mahony–Burgers equation

In the article, two linearized finite difference schemes are proposed and analyzed for the Benjamin–Bona–Mahony–Burgers (BBMB) equation. For the construction of the two-level scheme, the nonlinear term is linearized via averaging k and k + 1 floor, we prove unique solvability and convergence of numerical solutions in detail with the convergence order O(τ² + h²) . For the three-level linearized scheme, the extrapolation technique is utilized to linearize the nonlinear term based on ψ function. We obtain the conservation, boundedness, unique solvability and convergence of numerical solutions with the convergence order O(τ² + h²) at length. Furthermore, extending our work to the BBMB equation with the nonlinear source term is considered and a Newton linearized method is inserted to deal with it. The applicability and accuracy of both schemes are demonstrated by numerical experiments.     

A two-grid finite element method for the Allen-Cahn equation with the logarithmic potential

In this paper, we present a two-grid finite element method for the Allen-Cahn equation with the logarithmic potential. This method consists of two steps. In the first step, based on a fully implicit finite element method, the Allen-Cahn equation is solved on a coarse grid with mesh size H. In the second step, a linearized system whose nonlinear term is replaced by the value of the first step is solved on a fine grid with mesh size h. We give the energy stabilities of the traditional finite element method and the two-grid finite element method. The optimal convergence order of the two-grid finite element method in H¹ norm is achieved when the mesh sizes satisfy h = O(H²). Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed scheme. The results show that the two-grid method can save the CPU time while keeping the same convergence rate.     

An error estimate for a finite volume scheme for a diffusion–convection problem on a triangular mesh

We study here a finite volume scheme for a diffusion-convection equation on an open bounded set Ω of ?², using a triangular mesh for the discretization of Ω. The 4-point numerical scheme is presented along with the geometrical assumptions on the mesh. An error estimate of order h on the discrete L² norm is obtained, where h denotes the “size” of the mesh. The proof uses an estimate of order h of the consistency error on the fluxes and an estimate of the number of edges of the mesh between one given triangle and the boundary Ω. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Average implicit linear difference scheme for generalized Rosenau-Burgers equation

In this paper, a linear three-level average implicit finite difference scheme for the numerical solution of the initial-boundary value problem of Generalized Rosenau-Burgers equation is presented. Existence and uniqueness of numerical solutions are discussed. It is proved that the finite difference scheme is convergent in the order of O(τ² + h²) and stable. Numerical simulations show that the method is efficient.     

An unconditionally stable spatial sixth-order CCD-ADI method for the two-dimensional linear telegraph equation

The telegraph equation is one of the important models in many physics and engineering. In this work, we discuss the high-order compact finite difference method for solving the two-dimensional second-order linear hyperbolic equation. By using a combined compact finite difference method for the spatial discretization, a high-order alternating direction implicit method (ADI) is proposed. The method is O(τ² + h⁶) accurate, where τ, h are the temporal step size and spatial size, respectively. Von Neumann linear stability analysis shows that the method is unconditionally stable. Finally, numerical examples are used to illustrate the high accuracy of the new difference scheme.     

A second-order accurate numerical method for a fractional wave equation

We study a generalized Crank–Nicolson scheme for the time discretization of a fractional wave equation, in combination with a space discretization by linear finite elements. The scheme uses a non-uniform grid in time to compensate for the singular behaviour of the exact solution at t = 0. With appropriate assumptions on the data and assuming that the spatial domain is convex or smooth, we show that the error is of order k ² + h ², where k and h are the parameters for the time and space meshes, respectively.     

Finite element method for Grwünwald–Letnikov time-fractional partial differential equation

In this article, we consider the finite element methods (FEM) for Grwünwald–Letnikov time-fractional diffusion equation, which is obtained from the standard two-dimensional diffusion equation by replacing the first-order time derivative with a fractional derivative (of order α, with 0?h ^r+1?+?τ^2-α), where h, τ and r are the space step size, time step size and polynomial degree, respectively. A numerical example is presented to verify the order of convergence.     

A class of difference scheme for solving telegraph equation by new non-polynomial spline methods

In this paper, by using a new non-polynomial parameters cubic spline in space direction and compact finite difference in time direction, we get a class of new high accuracy scheme of O(τ⁴ + h²) and O(τ⁴ + h⁴) for solving telegraph equation if we suitably choose the cubic spline parameters. Meanwhile, stability condition of the difference scheme has been carried out. Finally, numerical examples are used to illustrate the efficiency of the new difference scheme.     

A fourth-order difference method for elliptic equations with nonlinear first derivative terms

We present a nine-point fourth-order finite difference method for the nonlinear second-order elliptic differential equation Au_xx + Bu_yy = f(x, y, u, u_x, u_y) on a rectangular region R subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions u(x, y) = g(x, y) on ?R. We establish, under appropriate conditions O(h⁴)-convergence of the finite difference scheme. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the method and its fourth-order convergence.     

High‐order approximation of 2D convection‐diffusion equation on hexagonal grids

We derive a fourth‐order finite difference scheme for the two‐dimensional convection‐diffusion equation on an hexagonal grid. The difference scheme is defined on a single regular hexagon of size h over a seven‐point stencil. Numerical experiments are conducted to verify the high accuracy of the derived scheme, and to compare it with the standard second‐order central difference scheme. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2006     

Finite Element Methods for Parabolic Stochastic PDE’s

We study the rate of convergence of some explicit and implicit numerical schemes for the solution of a parabolic stochastic partial differential equation driven by white noise. These include the forward and backward Euler and the Crank–Nicholson schemes. We use the finite element method. We find, as expected, that the rates of convergence are substantially similar to those found for finite difference schemes, at least when the size of the time step k is on the order of the square of the size of the space step h: all the schemes considered converge at a rate on the order of h^1/2+k^1/4, which is known to be optimal. We also consider cases where k is much greater than h², and find that only the backward Euler method always attains the optimal rate; other schemes, even though they are stable, can fail to convergence to the true solution if the time step is too long relative to the space step. The Crank–Nicholson scheme behaves particularly badly in this case, even though it is a higher-order method. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000) 60H15, 60H35, 65N30, 35R60.     

Compact finite difference scheme for the solution of time fractional advection-dispersion equation

In this paper, a compact finite difference method is proposed for the solution of time fractional advection-dispersion equation which appears extensively in fluid dynamics. In this approach the time fractional derivative of mentioned equation is approximated by a scheme of order O(τ ^2???α ), 0?<?α?<?1, and spatial derivatives are replaced with a fourth order compact finite difference scheme. We will prove the unconditional stability and solvability of proposed scheme. Also we show that the method is convergence with convergence order O(τ ^2???α ?+?h ⁴). Numerical examples confirm the theoretical results and high accuracy of proposed scheme.     

An eighth order tridiagonal finite difference method for nonlinear two-point boundary value problems

We present an eighth order finite difference method for the second order nonlinear boundary value problemy=f(x, y), y(a)=A, y(b)=B; the method iseconomical in the sense that each discretization of the differential equation at an interior grid point is based on seven evaluations off. For linear differential equations, the scheme leads to tridiagonal linear systems. We showO(h ⁸)-convergence of the method and demonstrate computationally its eighth order.