Approximation of solutions to operator equations in spaces of smooth functions and in spaces of distributions

The Galerkin method, in particular, the Galerkin method with finite elements (called finite element method) is widely used for numerical solution of differential equations. The Galerkin method allows us to obtain approximations of weak solutions only. However, there arises in applications a rich variety of problems where approximations of smooth solutions and solutions in the sense of distributions have to be found. This article is devoted to the employment of the Petrov–Galerkin method for solving such problems. The article contains general results on the Petrov–Galerkin approximations of solutions to linear and nonlinear operator equations. The problem on construction of the subspaces, which ensure the convergence of the approximations, is investigated. We apply the general results to two‐dimensional (2D) and 3D problems of the elasticity, to a parabolic problem, and to a nonlinear problem of the plasticity. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 406–450, 2014     

Two‐grid methods for semilinear interface problems

In this article, we consider two‐grid finite element methods for solving semilinear interface problems in d space dimensions, for d = 2 or d = 3. We consider semilinear problems with discontinuous diffusion coefficients, which includes problems containing subcritical, critical, and supercritical nonlinearities. We establish basic quasioptimal a priori error estimates for Galerkin approximations. We then design a two‐grid algorithm consisting of a coarse grid solver for the original nonlinear problem, and a fine grid solver for a linearized problem. We analyze the quality of approximations generated by the algorithm and show that the coarse grid may be taken to have much larger elements than the fine grid, and yet one can still obtain approximation quality that is asymptotically as good as solving the original nonlinear problem on the fine mesh. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

A mixed finite element method close to the equilibrium model

Summary A new variational formulation of the Dirichlet problem for one elliptic partial differential equation of the second order is established and justified, starting from a non-classical decomposition of the differential operator and the Friedrichs transformation. The variational problem has a unique solution which depends continuously on the right hand side of the given equation and enables to construct mixed finite element models. The Galerkin approximations are vector-functions converging to the cogradient of the solution of the original problem, except one component which tends to the solution itself.     

Integral formulae in the coupled problem of the thermoelasticity of an inhomogeneous body. Application in the mechanics of composite materials

A coupled unsteady problem of thermoelasticity for an inhomogeneous body, described by a system of four second-order partial differential equations with coefficients that vary depending on the coordinates, is considered, and the same problem for a homogeneous body of the same shape (the concomitant problem) is examined together with this original problem. Integral formulae are obtained that allow one to express the displacements and temperature in the original problem in terms of the displacements and temperature in the concomitant problem. Integral formulae are used to represent the solution of the original problem in the form of series over all possible derivatives of the solution of the concomitant problem. A system of recurrence problems is written for the coefficients of these series. Expressions are found for the coefficients of the concomitant problem (effective coefficients) and special boundary value problems are formulated, from the solution of which specific expressions are found for the effective thermoelasticity coefficients. A theorem concerning the fact that the effective coefficients satisfy the physicomechanical constraints imposed on the thermoelastic constants of real bodies is proved. The case of a layer that is inhomogeneous in its thickness is considered and explicit analytical expressions for all the thermoelasticity coefficients are obtained for it. The case when the thermoelasticity coefficients depend periodically on the coordinates is examined in detail.     

Numerical computation of forced oscillations in coupled duffing equations

Oscillating phenomena in non-linear mechanical systems with two degrees of freedom described by coupled Duffing equations are studied from the computational view point. Galerkin approximations of order 7 are computed with a very high precision on an electronic computer by applying a numerical approximation method of Urabe for the Galerkin method. The existence of an exact isolated periodic solution in a small neighborhood of these Galerkin approximations is proved and the error bound of these Galerkin approximations is given. The stability of Stierel's integration method in combination with Galerkin approximations is shown.     

A Stability Theorem for Constrained Optimal Control Problems

This paper presents the stability of difference approximations of an optimal control problem for a quasilinear parabolic equation with controls in the coefficients, boundary conditions and additional restrictions. The optimal control problem has been convered to one of the optimization problem using a penalty function technique. The difference approximations problem for the considered problem is obtained. The estimations of stability of the solution of difference approximations problem are proved. The stability estimation of the solution of difference approximations problem by the controls is obtained.     

On the convergence of the Galerkin method for coupled thermoelasticity problems

The Cauchy problem for a system of two operator-differential equations is considered that is an abstract statement of linear coupled thermoelasticity problems. Error estimates in the energy norm for the semidiscrete Galerkin method as applied to the Cauchy problem are established without imposing any special conditions on the projection subspaces. By way of illustration, the error estimates are applied to finite element schemes for solving the coupled problem of plate thermoelasticity considered within the framework of the Kirchhoff linearized theory. The results obtained are also applicable to the case when the projection subspaces in the Galerkin method (for the original abstract problem) are the eigenspaces of operators similar to unbounded self-adjoint positive definite operator coefficients of the original equations.     

Acceleration by aggregation of successive approximation methods

Methods of successive approximation for solving linear systems or minimization problems are accelerated by aggregation-disaggregation processes. These processes, which modify the iterates being produced, are characterized by a two directional flow of information between the original higher dimensional problem and a lower dimensional aggregated version. This technique is characterized by means of Galerkin approximations, and this in turn permits analysis of the method. A deterministic as well as probabilistic analysis is given of a number of specific aggregation-disaggregation examples. Numerical experiments have been performed, and these confirm the analysis and demonstrate the acceleration.     

Integrodifferential approaches to frequency analysis and control design for compressible fluid flow in a pipeline element

In this study, modelling, frequency analysis, and optimization of control processes are considered for the fluid flow in pipeline systems. A mathematical model of controlled pipeline elements with distributed parameters is proposed to describe the dynamical behaviour of compressible fluid which is transported in a long rigid tube. By exploiting specific functions representing cross-sectional forces and effective displacements as well as linear approximations of fluidic resistances, the original problem with non-uniform parameters is reduced to a partial differential equation (PDE) system with constant coefficients and homogeneous initial and boundary conditions. Three numerical approaches are applied to an efficient analysis of natural vibrations and reliable control-oriented modelling of pipeline elements. The conventional Galerkin method is compared with the method of integrodifferential relations based on a weak formulation of the constitutive laws. In the latter approach, the original initial-boundary value problem is reduced to the minimization of an error functional which provides explicit energy estimates of the solution quality. A novel projection approach is implemented on the basis of the Petrov–Galerkin method combined with the method of integrodifferential relations. This technique benefits from the advantages of the above-mentioned projection and variational approaches, namely sufficient numerical stability, a lower differential order, and an explicit quality estimation. Numerical optimization procedures, making use of a modified finite element technique, are proposed to obtain a feedforward control strategy for changing the pressure and mass flow inside the pipeline system to a desired operating state. At this given finite point of time, residual elastic oscillations inside the pipeline are minimized. Numerical results, obtained for ideal as well as viscous fluid models, are analysed and discussed.     

A Galerkin method for mixed parabolic–elliptic partial differential equations

In this article boundary value problems for partial differential equations of mixed elliptic–parabolic type are considered. To ensure that the considered problems possess a unique solution, the usual variational existence proof for parabolic problems is extended to the mixed situation. Further, the convergence of approximations computed by a time-space Galerkin method to the solution of the mixed problem is proven and error estimates are given.     

Initial boundary and inverse problems for the inhomogeneous equation of a mixed parabolic-hyperbolic equation

A problem with inhomogeneous boundary and initial conditions is studied for an inhomogeneous equation of mixed parabolic-hyperbolic type in a rectangular domain. The solution is constructed as the sum of an orthogonal series. A criterion for the uniqueness of the solution is established. It is shown that the uniqueness of the solution and the convergence of the series depend on the ratio of the sides of the rectangle from the hyperbolic part of the mixed domain. On the basis of this problem, inverse problems for finding the factors of the time-dependent right-hand sides of the original equation of mixed type are stated and studied for the first time. The corresponding uniqueness theorems and the existence of solutions are proved using the theory of integral equations for inverse problems.     

Classical solution of the first mixed problem for second-order hyperbolic equation in curvilinear half-strip with variable coefficients

The classical solution of the first mixed problem for a second-order hyperbolic equation with variable coefficients in the case of two independent variables in a curvilinear half-strip is considered. The existence and uniqueness of the classical solution under specific smoothness and matching conditions for given functions are proved. A method is proposed for constructing the solution using the method of sequential approximations for a system of integral equations of the second kind.     

Corrected Collocation Approximations for the Harmonic Dirichlet Problem

Collocation approximations with harmonic basis functions tothe solution of the harmonic Dirichlet problem are investigated.The choice of collocation points for a best local approximationis discussed, and a result is given in terms of the abscissaeof some best quadrature formulae. A global near-best approximationis obtained by adding a correction term to the collocation approximation,utilizing basic properties of the Green's function. Numericalexamples are given, demonstrating the great improvement achieved.The same correction term can also improve on least-squares approximationsand Galerkin approximations, and the results can easily be adaptedto deal with mixed harmonic boundary value problems.     

Hybridized schemes of the discontinuous Galerkin method for stationary convection–diffusion problems

For stationary linear convection–diffusion problems, we construct and study a new hybridized scheme of the discontinuous Galerkin method on the basis of an extended mixed statement of the problem. Discrete schemes can be used for the solution of equations degenerating in the leading part and are stated via approximations to the solution of the problem, its gradient, the flow, and the restriction of the solution to the boundaries of elements. For the spaces of finite elements, we represent minimal conditions responsible for the solvability, stability, accuracy, and superconvergence of the schemes. A new procedure for the post-processing of solutions of HDG-schemes is suggested.     

Accuracy Enhancement of Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Hyperbolic Systems

We study the enhancement of accuracy, by means of the convolution post-processing technique, for discontinuous Galerkin(DG) approximations to hyperbolic problems. Previous investigations have focused on the superconvergence obtained by this technique for elliptic, time-dependent hyperbolic and convection-diffusion problems. In this paper, we demonstrate that it is possible to extend this post-processing technique to the hyperbolic problems written as the Friedrichs' systems by using an upwind-like DG method. We prove that the $L_2$-error of the DG solution is of order $k+1/2$, and further the post-processed DG solution is of order $2k+1$ if $Q_k$-polynomials are used. The key element of our analysis is to derive the $(2k+1)$-order negative norm error estimate. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the theoretical analysis.     

The dynamical behavior of the discontinuous Galerkin method and related difference schemes

We study the dynamical behavior of the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for initial value problems in ordinary differential equations. We make two different assumptions which guarantee that the continuous problem defines a dissipative dynamical system. We show that, under certain conditions, the discontinuous Galerkin approximation also defines a dissipative dynamical system and we study the approximation properties of the associated discrete dynamical system. We also study the behavior of difference schemes obtained by applying a quadrature formula to the integrals defining the discontinuous Galerkin approximation and construct two kinds of discrete finite element approximations that share the dissipativity properties of the original method.

     

The coupling of boundary integral and finite element methods for nonmonotone nonlinear problems ∗

In this paper, we apply the coupling of the boundary integral and finite element methods to study the weak solvability of certain nonmonotone nonlinear exterior boundary value problems. In order to convert the original exterior problem into an equivalent nonlocal boundary value problem on a finite region, we employ two different approaches based on the use of one and two integral equations on the coupling boundary. Existence of a solution for the associated weak formulation, and convergence properties of the corresponding Galerkin approximations are deduced from fundamental results in nonlinear functional analysis. Indeed, the main arguments of our proofs are based on a surjectivity theorem for mappings of type (S) and on the Fredholm alternative for nonlinear A-proper mappings.     

Efficient computable error bounds for discontinuous Galerkin approximations of elliptic problems

We present guaranteed and computable both sided error bounds for the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) approximations of elliptic problems. These estimates are derived in the full DG-norm on purely functional grounds by the analysis of the respective differential problem, and thus, are applicable to any qualified DG approximation. Based on the triangle inequality, the underlying approach has the following steps for a given DG approximation: (1) computing a conforming approximation in the energy space using the Oswald interpolation operator, and (2) application of the existing functional a posteriori error estimates to the conforming approximation. Various numerical examples with varying difficulty in computing the error bounds, from simple problems of polynomial-type analytic solution to problems with analytic solution having sharp peaks, or problems with jumps in the coefficients of the partial differential equation operator, are presented which confirm the efficiency and the robustness of the estimates.     

Fourier series and integral equation method for the exterior Stokes problem

The exterior Stokes problem between two parallel planes that are separated by a prismatic cylinder is extended to the interior of the prism by requiring the continuity of the velocity across the lateral faces. The well‐posedness of the exterior–interior problem is proved in suitable weighted Sobolev spaces. The solution is represented by Fourier series in the z‐variable. The Fourier coefficients, solutions of auxiliary two‐dimensional exterior–interior problems, are analyzed by viewing them as boundary integral equations of potential theory and global regularity of the densities, is established in weighted Sobolev spaces of traces. A boundary element method, with suitably refined mesh size, is implemented for the numerical treatment of the Fourier coefficients. This provides optimal convergent semi‐ and fully‐discrete spectral methods of Fourier–Galerkin type. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2008     

An analytic method for the initial value problem of the electric field system in vertical inhomogeneous anisotropic media

The time-dependent system of partial differential equations of the second order describing the electric wave propagation in vertically inhomogeneous electrically and magnetically biaxial anisotropic media is considered. A new analytical method for solving an initial value problem for this system is the main object of the paper. This method consists in the following: the initial value problem is written in terms of Fourier images with respect to lateral space variables, then the resulting problem is reduced to an operator integral equation. After that the operator integral equation is solved by the method of successive approximations. Finally, a solution of the original initial value problem is found by the inverse Fourier transform.