The aim of this paper is to develop a finite element method which allows computingthe buckling coefficients and modes of a non-homogeneous Timoshenko beam.Studying the spectral properties of a non-compact operator,we show that the relevant buckling coefficients correspond to isolatedeigenvalues of finite multiplicity.Optimal order error estimates are proved for the eigenfunctionsas well as a double order of convergence forthe eigenvalues using classical abstract spectral approximation theory for non-compact operators.These estimates are valid independently of the thickness of the beam, whichleads to the conclusion that the method is locking-free.Numerical tests are reported in order to assess the performance of the method.

Cell-centered and vertex-centered finite volume schemes for the Laplace equationwith homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditionsare considered on a triangular mesh and on the Voronoi diagram associated to its vertices.A broken P 1 function is constructed from the solutions of both schemes.When the domain is two-dimensional polygonal convex,it is shown that this reconstructionconverges with second-order accuracy towards the exact solution in the L 2 norm,under the sufficient condition that the right-hand side of the Laplace equation belongs to H 1(Ω).

We prove the optimal convergence of a discontinuous-Galerkin-based immersed boundary method introduced earlier [Lew and Buscaglia, Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng.76 (2008) 427–454]. By switching to a discontinuous Galerkin discretization near the boundary, this method overcomes the suboptimal convergence rate that may arise in immersed boundary methods when strongly imposing essential boundary conditions. We consider a model Poisson's problem with homogeneous boundary conditions over two-dimensional C 2-domains. For solution in Hq for q > 2, we prove that the method constructed with polynomials of degree one on each element approximates the function and its gradient with optimal orders h 2 and h, respectively. When q = 2, we have h 2-ε and h 1-ε for any ϵ > 0 instead. To this end,we construct a new interpolant that takes advantage of the discontinuities in the space, since standard interpolation estimates lead here to suboptimal approximation rates. The interpolation error estimate is based on proving an analog to Deny-Lions' lemma for discontinuous interpolants on a patch formed by the reference elements of any element and its three face-sharing neighbors. Consistency errors arising due to differences between the exact and the approximate domains are treated using Hardy's inequality together with more standard results on Sobolev functions.

This study is mainly dedicated to the development and analysis ofnon-overlapping domain decomposition methods for solving continuous-pressurefinite element formulations of the Stokes problem. These methods have thefollowing special features. By keeping the equations and unknowns unchanged atthe cross points, that is, points shared by more than two subdomains, one caninterpret them as iterative solvers of the actual discrete problem directlyissued from the finite element scheme. In this way, the good stabilityproperties of continuous-pressure mixed finite element approximations of theStokes system are preserved. Estimates ensuring that each iteration can beperformed in a stable way as well as a proof of the convergence of theiterative process provide a theoretical background for the application of therelated solving procedure. Finally some numerical experiments are given todemonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, and particularly to compare itsefficiency with an adaptation to this framework of a standard FETI-DP method.

In this article, we investigate numerical schemes for solvinga three component Cahn-Hilliard model. The space discretization isperformed by usinga Galerkin formulation and the finite element method.Concerning the time discretization,the main difficulty is to write a scheme ensuring,at the discrete level, the decrease of the free energyand thus the stability of the method.We study three different schemes and proveexistence and convergence theorems. Theoretical results areillustrated by various numerical examples showing that the new semi-implicitdiscretization that we propose seems to be a good compromise between robustnessand accuracy.

As an example of a simple constrained geometric non-linear wave equation, we study a numerical approximation of the Maxwell Klein Gordon equation. We consider an existing constraint preserving semi-discrete scheme based on finite elements and prove its convergence in space dimension 2 for initial data of finite energy.

We prove a posteriori error estimates of optimal order for linearSchrödinger-type equations in the L ∞(L 2)- and theL ∞(H 1)-norm. We discretize only in time by theCrank-Nicolson method. The direct use of the reconstructiontechnique, as it has been proposed by Akrivis et al. in [Math. Comput.75 (2006) 511–531], leads to a posteriori upper bounds thatare of optimal order in the L ∞(L 2)-norm, but ofsuboptimal order in the L ∞(H 1)-norm. The optimality inthe case of L ∞(H 1)-norm is recovered by using anauxiliary initial- and boundary-value problem.

This paper is concerned with the dual formulation of the interface problemconsisting of a linear partial differential equation with variable coefficientsin some bounded Lipschitz domain Ω in $\mathbb{R}^n$ (n ≥ 2) and the Laplace equation with some radiation condition in theunbounded exterior domain Ωc := $\mathbb{R}^n\backslash\bar\Omega$ . The two problems are coupled by transmission andSignorini contact conditions on the interface Γ = ∂Ω. The exterior part of theinterface problem is rewritten using a Neumann to Dirichlet mapping (NtD) given in terms of boundary integral operators. The resulting variational formulation becomes a variational inequalitywith a linear operator. Then we treat the corresponding numerical scheme and discuss anapproximation of the NtD mapping with an appropriatediscretization of the inverse Poincaré-Steklov operator. In particular, assuming some abstract approximationproperties and a discrete inf-sup condition, we show unique solvability of the discrete scheme andobtain the corresponding a-priori error estimate. Next, we prove that these assumptions aresatisfied with Raviart-Thomas elements and piecewise constants in Ω, and continuous piecewise linear functions on Γ. We suggest a solver based on a modified Uzawa algorithm and show convergence. Finally we present some numerical results illustrating our theory.