A moving mesh method is proposed for solving reaction-diffusion equations. The finite element method is used to solving the partial different equation system, and an efficient numerical scheme is applied to implement mesh moving. In the practical calculations, the moving mesh step and the problem equation solver are performed alternatively. Several numerical examples are presented, including the Gray-Scott, the Activator-Inhibitor and a case with a growing domain. It is illustrated numerically that the moving mesh methods costs much lower, compared with the numerical schemes on a fixed mesh. Even in the case of complex pattern dynamics described by the reaction-diffusion systems, the adapted meshes can capture the details successfully.

We present a new splitting method for time-dependent convention-dominated diffusion problems. The original convention diffusion system is split into two sub-systems: a pure convection system and a diffusion system. At each time step, a convection problem and a diffusion problem are solved successively. A few important features of the scheme lie in the facts that the convection subproblem is solved explicitly and multistep techniques can be used to essentially enlarge the stability region so that the resulting scheme behaves like an unconditionally stable scheme; while the diffusion subproblem is always self-adjoint and coercive so that they can be solved efficiently using many existing optimal preconditioned iterative solvers. The scheme can be extended for solving the Navier-Stokes equations, where the nonlinearity is resolved by a linear explicit multistep scheme at the convection step, while only a generalized Stokes problem is needed to solve at the diffusion step and the major stiffness matrix stays invariant in the time marching process. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the stability, convergence and performance of the single-step and multistep variants of the new scheme.

In this paper, we propose implicit and semi-implicit in time finite volume schemes forthe barotropic Euler equations (hence, as a particular case, for the shallow waterequations) and for the full Euler equations, based on staggered discretizations. Forstructured meshes, we use the MAC finite volume scheme, and, for general mixedquadrangular/hexahedral and simplicial meshes, we use the discrete unknowns of theRannacher−Turek orCrouzeix−Raviart finiteelements. We first show that a solution to each of these schemes satisfies a discretekinetic energy equation. In the barotropic case, a solution also satisfies a discreteelastic potential balance; integrating these equations over the domain readily yieldsdiscrete counterparts of the stability estimates which are known for the continuousproblem. In the case of the full Euler equations, the scheme relies on the discretizationof the internal energy balance equation, which offers two main advantages: first, we avoidthe space discretization of the total energy, which involves cell-centered andface-centered variables; second, we obtain an algorithm which boils down to a usualpressure correction scheme in the incompressible limit. Consistency (in a weak sense) withthe original total energy conservative equation is obtained thanks to corrective terms inthe internal energy balance, designed to compensate numerical dissipation terms appearingin the discrete kinetic energy inequality. It is then shown in the 1D case, that,supposing the convergence of a sequence of solutions, the limit is an entropy weaksolution of the continuous problem in the barotropic case, and a weak solution in the fullEuler case. Finally, we present numerical results which confirm this theory.

In this article we develop a posteriori error estimates for second orderlinear elliptic problems with point sources in two- and three-dimensional domains. Weprove a global upper bound and a local lower bound for the error measured in a weightedSobolev space. The weight considered is a (positive) power of the distance to the supportof the Dirac delta source term, and belongs to the Muckenhoupt’s class A2. The theoryhinges on local approximation properties of either Clément or Scott–Zhang interpolationoperators, without need of modifications, and makes use of weighted estimates forfractional integrals and maximal functions. Numerical experiments with an adaptivealgorithm yield optimal meshes and very good effectivity indices.

We study the time-harmonic acoustic scattering in a duct in presence of a flow and of adiscontinuous impedance boundary condition. Unlike a continuous impedance, a discontinuousone leads to still open modeling questions, as in particular the singularity of thesolution at the abrupt transition and the choice of the right unknown to formulate thescattering problem. To address these questions we propose a mathematical approach based onvariational formulations set in weighted Sobolev spaces. Considering the discontinuousimpedance as the limit of a continuous boundary condition, we prove that only the problemformulated in terms of the velocity potential converges to a well-posed problem. Moreoverwe identify the limit problem and determine some Kutta-like condition satisfied by thevelocity: its convective derivative must vanish at the ends of the impedance area. Finallywe justify why it is not possible to define limit problems for the pressure and thedisplacement. Numerical examples illustrate the convergence process.

We present quantitative studies of transfer operators between finite element spaces associated with unrelated meshes. Several local approximations of the global L2-orthogonal projection are reviewed and evaluated computationally. The numerical studies in 3D provide the first estimates of the quantitative differences between a range of transfer operators between non-nested finite element spaces. We consider the standard finite element interpolation, Clément’s quasi-interpolation with different local polynomial degrees, the global L2-orthogonal projection, a local L2-quasi-projection via a discrete inner product, and a pseudo-L2-projection defined by a Petrov-Galerkin variational equation with a discontinuous test space. Understanding their qualitative and quantitative behaviors in this computational way is interesting per se; it could also be relevant in the context of discretization and solution techniques which make use of different non-nested meshes. It turns out that the pseudo-L2-projection approximates the actual L2-orthogonal projection best. The obtained results seem to be largely independent of the underlying computational domain; this is demonstrated by four examples (ball, cylinder, half torus and Stanford Bunny).

We address multiscale elliptic problems with random coefficients that are a perturbationof multiscale deterministic problems. Our approach consists in taking benefit of theperturbative context to suitably modify the classical Finite Element basis into adeterministic multiscale Finite Element basis. The latter essentially shares the sameapproximation properties as a multiscale Finite Element basis directly generated on therandom problem. The specific reference method that we use is the Multiscale Finite ElementMethod. Using numerical experiments, we demonstrate the efficiency of our approach and thecomputational speed-up with respect to a more standard approach. In the stationarysetting, we provide a complete analysis of the approach, extending that available for thedeterministic periodic setting.

In this article, we present a numerical scheme based on a finite element method in orderto solve a time-dependent convection-diffusion equation problem and satisfy someconservation properties. In particular, our scheme is able to conserve the total energyfor a heat equation or the total mass of a solute in a fluid for a concentration equation,even if the approximation of the velocity field is not completely divergence-free. Weestablish a priori errror estimates for this scheme and we give some numerical exampleswhich show the efficiency of the method.

In this paper we consider a model shape optimization problem. The state variable solvesan elliptic equation on a domain with one part of the boundary described as the graph of acontrol function. We prove higher regularity of the control and develop a priorierror analysis for the finite element discretization of the shape optimizationproblem under consideration. The derived a priori error estimates areillustrated on two numerical examples.

Goal of this paper is to suitably combine a model with an anisotropic mesh adaptation for the numerical simulation of nonlinear advection-diffusion-reaction systems and incompressible flows in ecological and environmental applications. Using the reduced-basis method terminology, the proposed approach leads to a noticeable computational saving of the online phase with respect to the resolution of the reference model on nonadapted grids. The search of a suitable adapted model/mesh pair is to be meant, instead, in an offline fashion.

In this work we study a fully discrete mixed scheme, based on continuous finite elementsin space and a linear semi-implicit first-order integration in time, approximating anEricksen–Leslie nematic liquid crystal model by means of aGinzburg–Landau penalized problem. Conditional stability of this schemeis proved via a discrete version of the energy law satisfied by thecontinuous problem, and conditional convergence towards generalized Young measure-valuedsolutions to the Ericksen–Leslie problem is showed when the discreteparameters (in time and space) and the penalty parameter go to zero at the same time.Finally, we will show some numerical experiences for a phenomenon of annihilation ofsingularities.

Existence of a solution to the quasi-variational inequality problem arising in a modelfor sand surface evolution has been an open problem for a long time. Another long-standingopen problem concerns determining the dual variable, the flux of sand pouring down theevolving sand surface, which is also of practical interest in a variety of applications ofthis model. Previously, these problems were solved for the special case in which theinequality is simply variational. Here, we introduce a regularized mixed formulationinvolving both the primal (sand surface) and dual (sand flux) variables. We derive,analyse and compare two methods for the approximation, and numerical solution, of thismixed problem. We prove subsequence convergence of both approximations, as the meshdiscretization parameters tend to zero; and hence prove existence of a solution to thismixed model and the associated regularized quasi-variational inequality problem. One ofthese numerical approximations, in which the flux is approximated by thedivergence-conforming lowest order Raviart–Thomas element, leads to an efficient algorithmto compute not only the evolving pile surface, but also the flux of pouring sand. Resultsof our numerical experiments confirm the validity of the regularization employed.

A unified process for the construction of hierarchical conforming bases on a range of element types is proposed based on an ab initio preservation of the underlying cohomology. This process supports not only the most common simplicial element types, as are now well known, but is generalized to squares, hexahedra, prisms and importantly pyramids. Whilst these latter cases have received (to varying degrees) attention in the literature, their foundation is less well developed than for the simplicial case. The generalization discussed in this paper is effected by recourse to basic ideas from algebraic topology (differential forms, homology, cohomology, etc) and as such extends the fundamental theoretical framework established by the work of Hiptmair and Arnold et al. for simplices. The process of forming hierarchical bases involves a recursive orthogonalization and it is shown that the resulting finite element mass, quasi-stiffness and composite matrices exhibit exponential or better growth in condition number.

In earlier work we have studied a method for discretization in time of a parabolic problem, which consists of representing the exact solution as an integral in the complex plane and then applying a quadrature formula to this integral. In application to a spatially semidiscrete finite-element version of the parabolic problem, at each quadrature point one then needs to solve a linear algebraic system having a positive-definite matrix with a complex shift. We study iterative methods for such systems, considering the basic and preconditioned versions of first the Richardson algorithm and then a conjugate gradient method.

In this article, we consider a domain consisting of two cavities linked by a hole of small size. We derive a numerical method to compute an approximation of the eigenvalues of an elliptic operator without refining in the neighborhood of the hole. Several convergence rates are obtained and illustrated by numerical simulations.

For the numerical simulation of time harmonic acoustic scattering in a complex geometry, in presence of an arbitrary mean flow, the main difficulty is the coexistence and the coupling of two very different phenomena: acoustic propagation and convection of vortices. We consider a linearized formulation coupling an augmented Galbrun equation (for the perturbation of displacement) with a time harmonic convection equation (for the vortices). We first establish the well-posedness of this time harmonic convection equation in the appropriate mathematical framework. Then the complete problem, with Perfectly Matched Layers at the artificial boundaries, is proved to be coercive + compact, and a hybrid numerical method for the solution is proposed, coupling finite elements for the Galbrun equation and a Discontinuous Galerkin scheme for the convection equation. Finally a 2D numerical result shows the efficiency of the method.

For robust discretizations of the Navier-Stokes equations with small viscosity, standardGalerkin schemes have to be augmented by stabilization terms due to the indefiniteconvective terms and due to a possible lost of a discrete inf-sup condition. For optimalcontrol problems for fluids such stabilization have in general an undesired effect in thesense that optimization and discretization do not commute. This is the case for thecombination of streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) and pressure stabilizedPetrov-Galerkin (PSPG). In this work we study the effect of different stabilized finiteelement methods to distributed control problems governed by singular perturbed Oseenequations. In particular, we address the question whether a possible commutation error inoptimal control problems lead to a decline of convergence order. Therefore, we givea priori estimates for SUPG/PSPG. In a numerical study for a flow withboundary layers, we illustrate to which extend the commutation error affects theaccuracy.