This paper aims at a general guideline to obtain a posteriori error estimates for the finite element error control in computational partial differential equations. In the abstract setting of mixed formulations, a generalised formulation of the corresponding residuals is proposed which then allows for the unified estimation of the respective dual norms. Notably, this can be done with an approach which is applicable in the same way to conforming, nonconforming and mixed discretisations. Subsequently, the unified approach is applied to various model problems. In particular, we consider the Laplace, Stokes, Navier-Lamé, and the semi-discrete eddy current equations.

We prove the quasi-optimal convergence of a standard adaptive finite element method (AFEM) for a class of nonlinear elliptic second-order equations of monotone type. The adaptive algorithm is based on residual-type a posteriori error estimators and Dörfler’s strategy is assumed for marking. We first prove a contraction property for a suitable definition of total error, analogous to the one used by Diening and Kreuzer (2008) and equivalent to the total error defined by Cascón et. al. (2008). This contraction implies linear convergence of the discrete solutions to the exact solution in the usual H1 Sobolev norm. Secondly, we use this contraction to derive the optimal complexity of the AFEM. The results are based on ideas from Diening and Kreuzer and extend the theory from Cascón et. al. to a class of nonlinear problems which stem from strongly monotone and Lipschitz operators.

We consider the convergence theory of adaptive multigrid methods for second-order elliptic problems and Maxwell’s equations. The multigrid algorithm only performs pointwise Gauss-Seidel relaxations on new degrees of freedom and their “immediate” neighbors. In the context of lowest order conforming finite element approximations, we present a unified proof for the convergence of adaptive multigrid V-cycle algorithms. The theory applies to any hierarchical tetrahedral meshes with uniformly bounded shape-regularity measures. The convergence rates for both problems are uniform with respect to the number of mesh levels and the number of degrees of freedom. We demonstrate our convergence theory by two numerical experiments.

This paper is concerned with a compact difference scheme with the truncation error of order 3/2 for time and order 4 for space to an evolution equation with a weakly singular kernel. The integral term is treated by means of the second order convolution quadrature suggested by Lubich. The stability and convergence are proved by the energy method. A numerical experiment is reported to verify the theoretical predictions.

A mesh-independent, robust, and accurate multigrid scheme to solve a linear state-constrained parabolic optimal control problem is presented. We first consider a Lavrentiev regularization of the state-constrained optimization problem. Then, a multi-grid scheme is designed for the numerical solution of the regularized optimality system. Central to this scheme is the construction of an iterative pointwise smoother which can be formulated as a local semismooth Newton iteration. Results of numerical experiments and theoretical twogrid local Fourier analysis estimates demonstrate that the proposed scheme is able to solve parabolic state-constrained optimality systems with textbook multigrid efficiency.

The numerical modeling of a binary solidification with a mushy layer mechanism is considered in this manuscript. The nonlinear coupled system of equations describes the heat and mass diffusions of a one-dimensional spatial variable in the semi-infinite interval. Also formulated is a transformed system in a finite interval. We propose numerical methods for solving the nonlinear system using a threshold strategy based on fixed computation-domain approach. Our calculated results and those from the LeadEx field experiment are well-matched in their tendencies.

As the generalization of the integer order partial differential equations (PDE), the fractional order PDEs are drawing more and more attention for their applications in fluid flow, finance and other areas. This paper presents high-order accurate Runge-Kutta local discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods for one- and two-dimensional fractional diffusion equations containing derivatives of fractional order in space. The Caputo derivative is chosen as the representation of spatial derivative, because it may represent the fractional derivative by an integral operator. Some numerical examples show that the convergence orders of the proposed local Pk-DG methods are O(hk+1) both in one and two dimensions, where Pk denotes the space of the real-valued polynomials with degree at most k.

This paper is concerned with recovery type a posteriori error estimates of fully discrete finite element approximation for general convex parabolic optimal control problems with pointwise control constraints. The time discretization is based on the backward Euler method. The state and the adjoint state are approximated by piece-wise linear functions and the control is approximated by piecewise constant functions. We derive the superconvergence properties of finite element solutions. By using the superconvergence results, we obtain recovery type a posteriori error estimates. Some numerical examples are presented to verify the theoretical results.

In this paper we present a one dimensional second order accurate method to solve Elliptic equations with discontinuous coefficients on an arbitrary interface. Second order accuracy for the first derivative is obtained as well. The method is based on the Ghost Fluid Method, making use of ghost points on which the value is defined by suitable interface conditions. The multi-domain formulation is adopted, where the problem is split in two sub-problems and interface conditions will be enforced to close the problem. Interface conditions are relaxed together with the internal equations (following the approach proposed in [10] in the case of smooth coefficients), leading to an iterative method on all the set of grid values (inside points and ghost points). A multigrid approach with a suitable definition of the restriction operator is provided. The restriction of the defect is performed separately for both sub-problems, providing a convergence factor close to the one measured in the case of smooth coefficient and independent on the magnitude of the jump in the coefficient. Numerical tests will confirm the second order accuracy. Although the method is proposed in one dimension, the extension in higher dimension is currently underway [12] and it will be carried out by combining the discretization of [10] with the multigrid approach of [11] for Elliptic problems with non-eliminated boundary conditions in arbitrary domain.

In this paper, we study robust iterative solvers for finite element systems resulting in approximation of steady-state Richards’ equation in porous media with highly heterogeneous conductivity fields. It is known that in such cases the contrast, ratio between the highest and lowest values of the conductivity, can adversely affect the performance of the preconditioners and, consequently, a design of robust preconditioners is important for many practical applications. The proposed iterative solvers consist of two kinds of iterations, outer and inner iterations. Outer iterations are designed to handle nonlinearities by linearizing the equation around the previous solution state. As a result of the linearization, a large-scale linear system needs to be solved. This linear system is solved iteratively (called inner iterations), and since it can have large variations in the coefficients, a robust preconditioner is needed. First, we show that under some assumptions the number of outer iterations is independent of the contrast. Second, based on the recently developed iterative methods, we construct a class of preconditioners that yields convergence rate that is independent of the contrast. Thus, the proposed iterative solvers are optimal with respect to the large variation in the physical parameters. Since the same preconditioner can be reused in every outer iteration, this provides an additional computational savings in the overall solution process. Numerical tests are presented to confirm the theoretical results.

In this paper, we propose a regularized version of the generalized NCP-function proposed by Hu, Huang and Chen [J. Comput. Appl. Math., 230 (2009), pp. 69-82]. Based on this regularized function, we propose a semismooth Newton method for solving nonlinear complementarity problems, where a non-monotone line search scheme is used. In particular, we show that the proposed non-monotone method is globally and locally superlinearly convergent under suitable assumptions. We test the proposed method by solving the test problems from MCPLIB. Numerical experiments indicate that this algorithm has better numerical performance in the case of p = 5 and Θ ∈ [0.25,075] than other cases.

Node importance or centrality evaluation is an important methodology for network analysis. In this paper, we are interested in the study of objects appearing in several networks. Such common objects are important in network-network interactions via object-object interactions. The main contribution of this paper is to model multiple networks where there are some common objects in a multivariate Markov chain framework, and to develop a method for solving common and non-common objects’ stationary probability distributions in the networks. The stationary probability distributions can be used to evaluate the importance of common and non-common objects via network-network interactions. Our experimental results based on examples of co-authorship of researchers in different conferences and paper citations in different categories have shown that the proposed model can provide useful information for researcher-researcher interactions in networks of different conferences and for paper-paper interactions in networks of different categories.

Finite difference method is an important methodology in the approximation of waves. In this paper, we will study two implicit finite difference schemes for the simulation of waves. They are the weighted alternating direction implicit (ADI) scheme and the locally one-dimensional (LOD) scheme. The approximation errors, stability conditions, and dispersion relations for both schemes are investigated. Our analysis shows that the LOD implicit scheme has less dispersion error than that of the ADI scheme. Moreover, the unconditional stability for both schemes with arbitrary spatial accuracy is established for the first time. In order to improve computational efficiency, numerical algorithms based on message passing interface (MPI) are implemented. Numerical examples of wave propagation in a three-layer model and a standard complex model are presented. Our analysis and comparisons show that both ADI and LOD schemes are able to efficiently and accurately simulate wave propagation in complex media.

We present a simple yet effective and applicable scheme, based on quadrature, for constructing optimal iterative methods. According to the, still unproved, Kung-Traub conjecture an optimal iterative method based on n + 1 evaluations could achieve a maximum convergence order of 2n. Through quadrature, we develop optimal iterative methods of orders four and eight. The scheme can further be applied to develop iterative methods of even higher orders. Computational results demonstrate that the developed methods are efficient as compared with many well known methods.

Iterative regularization multigrid methods have been successful applied to signal/image deblurring problems. When zero-Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed the deblurring matrix has a Toeplitz structure and it is potentially full. A crucial task of a multilevel strategy is to preserve the Toeplitz structure at the coarse levels which can be exploited to obtain fast computations. The smoother has to be an iterative regularization method. The grid transfer operator should preserve the regularization property of the smoother. This paper improves the iterative multigrid method proposed in [11] introducing a wavelet soft-thresholding denoising post-smoother. Such post-smoother avoids the noise amplification that is the cause of the semi-convergence of iterative regularization methods and reduces ringing effects. The resulting iterative multigrid regularization method stabilizes the iterations so that and imprecise (over) estimate of the stopping iteration does not have a deleterious effect on the computed solution. Numerical examples of signal and image deblurring problems confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The block-by-block method, proposed by Linz for a kind of Volterra integral equations with nonsingular kernels, and extended by Kumar and Agrawal to a class of initial value problems of fractional differential equations (FDEs) with Caputo derivatives, is an efficient and stable scheme. We analytically prove and numerically verify that this method is convergent with order at least 3 for any fractional order index α > 0.

An algebraic Newton-multigrid method is proposed in order to efficiently solve systems of nonlinear reaction-diffusion problems with stochastic coefficients. These problems model the conversion of starch into sugars in growing apples. The stochastic system is first converted into a large coupled system of deterministic equations by applying a stochastic Galerkin finite element discretization. This method leads to high-order accurate stochastic solutions. A stable and high-order time discretization is obtained by applying a fully implicit Runge-Kutta method. After Newton linearization, a point-based algebraic multigrid solution method is applied. In order to decrease the computational cost, alternative multigrid preconditioners are presented. Numerical results demonstrate the convergence properties, robustness and efficiency of the proposed multigrid methods.

In this paper, we derive a posteriori error estimates for finite element approximations of the optimal control problems governed by the Stokes-Darcy system. We obtain a posteriori error estimators for both the state and the control based on the residual of the finite element approximation. It is proved that the a posteriori error estimate provided in this paper is both reliable and efficient.

For weighted approximation in Lp-norm, we determine strongly asymptotic orders for the average errors of both function approximation and derivative approximation by the Bernstein operators sequence on the r-fold integrated Wiener space.