Each averaging technique yields reliable a posteriori error control in FEM on unstructured grids. Part I: Low order conforming, nonconforming, and mixed FEM

Averaging techniques are popular tools in adaptive finite element methods for the numerical treatment of second order partial differential equations since they provide efficient a posteriori error estimates by a simple postprocessing. In this paper, their reliablility is shown for conforming, nonconforming, and mixed low order finite element methods in a model situation: the Laplace equation with mixed boundary conditions. Emphasis is on possibly unstructured grids, nonsmoothness of exact solutions, and a wide class of averaging techniques. Theoretical and numerical evidence supports that the reliability is up to the smoothness of given right-hand sides.

     

A posteriori error analysis for conforming MITC elements for Reissner-Mindlin plates

This paper establishes a unified a posteriori error estimator for a large class of conforming finite element methods for the Reissner-Mindlin plate problem. The analysis is based on some assumption (H) on the consistency of the reduction integration to avoid shear locking. The reliable and efficient a posteriori error estimator is robust in the sense that the reliability and efficiency constants are independent of the plate thickness . The presented analysis applies to all conforming MITC elements and all conforming finite element methods without reduced integration from the literature.

     

Nonconforming elements in least-squares mixed finite element methods

In this paper we analyze the finite element discretization for the first-order system least squares mixed model for the second-order elliptic problem by means of using nonconforming and conforming elements to approximate displacement and stress, respectively. Moreover, on arbitrary regular quadrilaterals, we propose new variants of both the rotated nonconforming element and the lowest-order Raviart-Thomas element.

     

About Delaunay Triangulations and Discrete Maximum Principles for the Linear Conforming FEM Applied to the Poisson Equation

The starting point of the analysis in this paper is the following situation: "In a bounded domain in ², let a finite set of points be given. A triangulation of that domain has to be found, whose vertices are the given points and which is `suitable' for the linear conforming Finite Element Method (FEM)." The result of this paper is that for the discrete Poisson equation and under some weak additional assumptions, only the use of Delaunay triangulations preserves the maximum principle.     

Optimal error estimate of the penalty finite element method for the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations

A fully discrete penalty finite element method is presented for the two-dimensional time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations. The time discretization of the penalty Navier-Stokes equations is based on the backward Euler scheme; the spatial discretization of the time discretized penalty Navier-Stokes equations is based on a finite element space pair which satisfies some approximate assumption. An optimal error estimate of the numerical velocity and pressure is provided for the fully discrete penalty finite element method when the parameters and are sufficiently small.

     

η%-Superconvergence of Finite Element Solutions and Error Estimators

This paper is a summary of our study on the superconvergence of the finite element solutions and error estimators. We will persent the analysis of %-superconvergence for finite element solutions of the Poisson equation in the interior of meshes of triangles with straight edges, as well as the analysis at the boundary. The %-superconvergence via local averaging will also be presented, and the error estimators are compared in the sense of %-superconvergence.     

Superconvergence of Ritz‐Galerkin finite element approximations for second order elliptic problems

In this paper, the author derives an ‐superconvergence for the piecewise linear Ritz‐Galerkin finite element approximations for the second‐order elliptic equation equipped with Dirichlet boundary conditions. This superconvergence error estimate is established between the finite element solution and the usual Lagrange nodal point interpolation of the exact solution, and thus the superconvergence at the nodal points of each element. The result is based on a condition for the finite element partition characterized by the coefficient tensor and the usual shape functions on each element, called ‐equilateral assumption in this paper. Several examples are presented for the coefficient tensor and finite element triangulations which satisfy the conditions necessary for superconvergence. Some numerical experiments are conducted to confirm this new theory of superconvergence.     

Approximation by quadrilateral finite elements

We consider the approximation properties of finite element spaces on quadrilateral meshes. The finite element spaces are constructed starting with a given finite dimensional space of functions on a square reference element, which is then transformed to a space of functions on each convex quadrilateral element via a bilinear isomorphism of the square onto the element. It is known that for affine isomorphisms, a necessary and sufficient condition for approximation of order in and order in is that the given space of functions on the reference element contain all polynomial functions of total degree at most . In the case of bilinear isomorphisms, it is known that the same estimates hold if the function space contains all polynomial functions of separate degree . We show, by means of a counterexample, that this latter condition is also necessary. As applications, we demonstrate degradation of the convergence order on quadrilateral meshes as compared to rectangular meshes for serendipity finite elements and for various mixed and nonconforming finite elements.

     

Domain decomposition algorithms for mixed methods for second-order elliptic problems

In this paper domain decomposition algorithms for mixed finite element methods for linear second-order elliptic problems in and are developed. A convergence theory for two-level and multilevel Schwarz methods applied to the algorithms under consideration is given. It is shown that the condition number of these iterative methods is bounded uniformly from above in the same manner as in the theory of domain decomposition methods for conforming and nonconforming finite element methods for the same differential problems. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the present techniques.

     

Analysis of two‐grid discretization scheme for semilinear hyperbolic equations by mixed finite element methods

In this paper, the full discrete scheme of mixed finite element approximation is introduced for semilinear hyperbolic equations. To solve the nonlinear problem efficiently, two two‐grid algorithms are developed and analyzed. In this approach, the nonlinear system is solved on a coarse mesh with width H, and the linear system is solved on a fine mesh with width h≪H. Error estimates and convergence results of two‐grid method are derived in detail. It is shown that if we choose in the first algorithm and in the second algorithm, the two‐grid algorithms can achieve the same accuracy of the mixed finite element solutions. Finally, the numerical examples also show that the two‐grid method is much more efficient than solving the nonlinear mixed finite element system directly.     

A posteriori error analysis for locally conservative mixed methods

In this work we present a theoretical analysis for a residual-type error estimator for locally conservative mixed methods. This estimator was first introduced by Braess and Verfürth for the Raviart-Thomas mixed finite element method working in mesh-dependent norms. We improve and extend their results to cover any locally conservative mixed method under minimal assumptions, in particular, avoiding the saturation assumption made by Braess and Verfürth. Our analysis also takes into account discontinuous coefficients with possibly large jumps across interelement boundaries. The main results are applied to the nonconforming finite element method and the interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method as well as the mixed finite element method.

     

Error estimates of fully discrete finite element solutions for the 2D Cahn–Hilliard equation with infinite time horizon

In this article, we deal with a rigorous error analysis for the finite element solutions of the two‐dimensional Cahn–Hilliard equation with infinite time. The error estimates with respect to are proven for the fully discrete conforming piecewise linear element solution under Assumption (A1) on the initial value and Assumption (A2) on the discrete spectrum estimate in the finite element space. The analysis is based on sharp a‐priori estimates for the solutions, particularly reflecting their behavior as . Numerical experiments are carried out to support the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the efficiency of the fully discrete mixed finite element methods. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 742–762, 2017     

All first-order averaging techniques for a posteriori finite element error control on unstructured grids are efficient and reliable

All first-order averaging or gradient-recovery operators for lowest-order finite element methods are shown to allow for an efficient a posteriori error estimation in an isotropic, elliptic model problem in a bounded Lipschitz domain in . Given a piecewise constant discrete flux (that is the gradient of a discrete displacement) as an approximation to the unknown exact flux (that is the gradient of the exact displacement), recent results verify efficiency and reliability of

in the sense that is a lower and upper bound of the flux error up to multiplicative constants and higher-order terms. The averaging space consists of piecewise polynomial and globally continuous finite element functions in components with carefully designed boundary conditions. The minimal value is frequently replaced by some averaging operator applied within a simple post-processing to . The result provides a reliable error bound with .

This paper establishes and so equivalence of and . This implies efficiency of for a large class of patchwise averaging techniques which includes the ZZ-gradient-recovery technique. The bound established for tetrahedral finite elements appears striking in that the shape of the elements does not enter: The equivalence is robust with respect to anisotropic meshes. The main arguments in the proof are Ascoli's lemma, a strengthened Cauchy inequality, and elementary calculations with mass matrices.

     

A robust nonconforming -element

Finite element methods for some elliptic fourth order singular perturbation problems are discussed. We show that if such problems are discretized by the nonconforming Morley method, in a regime close to second order elliptic equations, then the error deteriorates. In fact, a counterexample is given to show that the Morley method diverges for the reduced second order equation. As an alternative to the Morley element we propose to use a nonconforming -element which is -conforming. We show that the new finite element method converges in the energy norm uniformly in the perturbation parameter.

     

四阶障碍问题的稳定化混合有限元方法

本文讨论了四阶障碍问题的稳定化混合有限元方法.首先,引入网格依赖范数,通过加罚方法得到了与四阶障碍问题的等价的混合变分形式.随后给出了基于C~0协调有限元空间(W_h,V_h)的混合有限元逼近,例如P_k-P_k三角形有限元.在网格依赖范数下,(W_h,V_h)满足离散的inf-sup条件.最后,我们在不同的假设下,得到了一些误差估计.     

Pointwise error estimates of the local discontinuous Galerkin method for a second order elliptic problem

In this paper we derive some pointwise error estimates for the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method for solving second-order elliptic problems in (). Our results show that the pointwise errors of both the vector and scalar approximations of the LDG method are of the same order as those obtained in the norm except for a logarithmic factor when the piecewise linear functions are used in the finite element spaces. Moreover, due to the weighted norms in the bounds, these pointwise error estimates indicate that when at least piecewise quadratic polynomials are used in the finite element spaces, the errors at any point depend very weakly on the true solution and its derivatives in the regions far away from . These localized error estimates are similar to those obtained for the standard conforming finite element method.

     

High accuracy analysis of the characteristic‐nonconforming FEM for a convection‐dominated transport problem

A low order characteristic‐nonconforming finite element method is proposed for solving a two‐dimensional convection‐dominated transport problem. On the basis of the distinguish property of element, that is, the consistency error can be estimated as order O(h²), one order higher than that of its interpolation error, the superclose result in broken energy norm is derived for the fully discrete scheme. In the process, we use the interpolation operator instead of the so‐called elliptic projection, which is an indispensable tool in the traditional finite element analysis. Furthermore, the global superconvergence is obtained by using the interpolated postprocessing technique. Lastly, some numerical experiments are provided to verify our theoretical analysis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

AMLI preconditioner for the p‐version of the FEM

From the literature it is known that the conjugate gradient method with domain decomposition preconditioners is one of the most efficient methods for solving systems of linear algebraic equations resulting from p‐version finite element discretizations of elliptic boundary value problems. One ingredient of such a preconditioner is a preconditioner related to the Dirichlet problems. In the case of Poisson's equation, we present a preconditioner for the Dirichlet problems which can be interpreted as the stiffness matrix K_h,k resulting from the h‐version finite element discretization of a special degenerated problem. We construct an AMLI preconditioner C_h,k for the matrix K_h,k and show that the condition number of C K_h,k is independent of the discretization parameter. This proof is based on the strengthened Cauchy inequality. The theoretical result is confirmed by numerical examples. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.