An electric-analog simulation of elliptic partial differential equations using finite element theory

Elliptic partial differential equations can be solved using the Galerkin-finite element method to generate the approximating algebraic equations, and an electrical network to solve the resulting matrices. Some element configurations require the use of networks containing negative resistances which, while physically realizable, are more expensive and time-consuming to construct.     

Reduced-basis output bounds for approximately parametrized elliptic coercive partial differential equations

We present a technique for the rapid and reliable prediction of linear-functional outputs of elliptic coercive partial differential equations with (approximately) affine parameter dependence. The essential components are (i) (provably) rapidly convergent global reduced-basis approximations – Galerkin projection onto a space W_N spanned by solutions of the governing partial differential equation at N selected points in parameter space; (ii) a posteriori error estimation – relaxations of the error-residual equation that provide inexpensive yet sharp bounds for the error in the outputs of interest; and (iii) off-line/on-line computational procedures – methods which decouple the generation and projection stages of the approximation process. The operation count for the on-line stage – in which, given a new parameter value, we calculate the output of interest and associated error bound – depends only on N, typically very small, and the (approximate) parametric complexity of the problem; the method is thus ideally suited for the repeated and rapid evaluations required in the context of parameter estimation, design, optimization, and real-time control.In our earlier work, we develop a rigorous a posteriori error bound framework for the case in which the parametrization of the partial differential equation is exact; in this paper, we address the situation in which our mathematical model is not complete. In particular, we permit error in the data that define our partial differential operator: this error may be introduced, for example, by imperfect specification, measurement, calculation, or parametric expansion of a coefficient function. We develop both accurate predictions for the outputs of interest and associated rigorous a posteriori error bounds; and the latter incorporate both numerical discretization and model truncation effects. Numerical results are presented for a particular instantiation in which the model error originates in the (approximately) prescribed velocity field associated with a three-dimensional convection-diffusion problem.     

Finite element approximation of elliptic partial differential equations on implicit surfaces

The aim of this paper is to investigate finite element methods for the solution of elliptic partial differential equations on implicitly defined surfaces. The problem of solving such equations without triangulating surfaces is of increasing importance in various applications, and their discretization has recently been investigated in the framework of finite difference methods. For the two most frequently used implicit representations of surfaces, namely level set methods and phase-field methods, we discuss the construction of finite element schemes, the solution of the arising discretized problems, and provide error estimates. The convergence properties of the finite element methods are illustrated by computations for several test problems.     

A complex variable boundary element method for elliptic partial differential equations in a multiple-connected region

A simple boundary element method based on the Cauchy integral formulae is proposed for the numerical solution of a class of boundary value problems involving a system of elliptic partial differential equations in a multiple-connected region of infinite extent. It can be easily and efficiently implemented on the computer.     

L 2-Error bounds for approximate solutions of elliptic partial differential equations with Dirichlet-boundary conditions

New a posteriori (computable) upper bounds for theL ₂-norms, both ofD(u?v) and ofu?v are proposed, whereu is the exact solution of the boundary value problem $$Au: = - D(pDu) + qu = f, x \in G and u = 0,x \in \partial G$$ andv any approximation of it (D is here the vector of partial derivatives with respect to the components ofx). It is shown that the new error bounds are better than the classical one, which is proportional to ‖Av?f‖, in many cases. This happens, e. g., ifq has some zero point inG, as in the case of a Poisson equation.     

A posteriori error estimates of two-grid finite volume element methods for nonlinear elliptic problems

In this paper, we study the a posteriori error estimates of two-grid finite volume element method for second-order nonlinear elliptic equations. We derive the residual-based a posteriori error estimator and prove the computable upper and lower bounds on the error in $H^1$-norm. The a posteriori error estimator can be used to assess the accuracy of the two-grid finite volume element solutions in practical applications. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed estimator.     

Multilevel Schwarz methods for elliptic partial differential equations

We investigate multilevel Schwarz domain decomposition preconditioners, to efficiently solve linear systems arising from numerical discretizations of elliptic partial differential equations by the finite element method. In our analysis we deal with unstructured mesh partitions and with subdomain boundaries resulting from using the mesh partitioner. We start from two-level preconditioners with either aggregative or interpolative coarse level components, then we focus on a strategy to increase the number of levels. For all preconditioners, we consider the additive residual update and its multiplicative variants within and between levels. Moreover, we compare the preconditioners behaviour, regarding scalability and rate of convergence. Numerical results are provided for elliptic boundary value problems, including a convection–diffusion problem when suitable stabilization becomes necessary.     

A posteriori error analysis of space-time finite element discretizations of the time-dependent Stokes equations

We present a novel a posteriori error analysis of space-time finite element discretizations of the time-dependent Stokes equations. Our analysis is based on the equivalence of error and residual and a suitable decomposition of the residual into spatial and temporal contributions. In contrast to existing results we directly bound the error of the full space-time discretization and do not resort to auxiliary semi-discretizations. We thus obtain sharper bounds. Moreover the present analysis covers a wider range of discretizations both with respect to time and to space.     

On finite element methods for elliptic equations on domains with corners

A finite element method for approximating elliptic equations on domains with corners is proposed. The method makes use of the singular functions of the problem in the trial space and the kernel functions of the adjoint problem in the test space. This leads to good approximates of the coefficients of the singular functions. In the numerical computations, the method is compared with the well known Singular Function Method.     

Primal hybrid finite element methods for 4th order elliptic equations

A primal hybrid method for the biharmonic problem is developed. We find convergence results for a large class of approximations. The associated non conforming elements prove to pass ahigher order patch test and have the optimal order of convergence.     

Discontinuous Galerkin methods for elliptic partial differential equations with random coefficients

This paper proposes and analyses two numerical methods for solving elliptic partial differential equations with random coefficients, under the finite noise assumption. First, the stochastic discontinuous Galerkin method represents the stochastic solution in a Galerkin framework. Second, the Monte Carlo discontinuous Galerkin method samples the coefficients by a Monte Carlo approach. Both methods discretize the differential operators by the class of interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin methods. Error analysis is obtained. Numerical results show the sensitivity of the expected value and variance with respect to the penalty parameter of the spatial discretization.     

An incomplete nested dissection algorithm for parallel direct solution of finite element discretizations of partial differential equations

A multilevel algorithm is presented for direct, parallel factorization of the large sparse matrices that arise from finite element and spectral element discretization of elliptic partial differential equations. Incomplete nested dissection and domain decomposition are used to distribute the domain among the processors and to organize the matrix into sections in which pivoting is applied to stabilize the factorization of indefinite equation sets. The algorithm is highly parallel and memory efficient; the efficient use of sparsity in the matrix allows the solution of larger problems as the number of processors is increased, and minimizes computations as well as the number and volume of communications among the processors. The number of messages and the total volume of messages passed during factorization, which are used as measures of algorithm efficiency, are reduced significantly compared to other algorithms. Factorization times are low and speedups high for implementation on an Intel iPSC/860 hypercube computer. Furthermore, the timings for forward and back substitutions are more than an order-of-magnitude smaller than the matrix decomposition times.     

Development,evaluation and selection of methods for elliptic partial differential equations

We present a framework within which to evaluate and compare computational methods to solve elliptic partial differential equations. We then report on the results of comparisons of some classical methods as well as a new one presented here. Our main motivation is the belief that the standard finite difference methods are almost always inferior for solving elliptic problems and our results are strong evidence that this is true. The superior methods are higher order (fourth or more instead of second) and we describe a new collocation finite element method which we believe is more efficient and flexible than the other well known methods, e.g., fourth order finite differences, fourth order finite element methods of Galerkin, Rayleigh-Ritz or least squares type.Our comparisons are in the context of the relatively complicated problems that arise in realistic applications. Our conclusion does not hold for simple model problems (e.g., Laplaces equation on a rectangle) where very specialized methods are superior to the generally applicable methods that we consider. The accurate and relatively simple treatment of boundary conditions involving curves and derivations is a feature of our collocation method.     

Mixed discontinuous Legendre wavelet Galerkin method for solving elliptic partial differential equations

By incorporating the Legendre multiwavelet into the mixed discontinuous Galerkin method, in this paper, we present a novel method for solving second-order elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs), which is known as the mixed discontinuous Legendre multiwavelet Galerkin method, derive an adaptive algorithm for the method and estimate the approximating error of its numerical fluxes. One striking advantage of our method is that the differential operator, boundary conditions and numerical fluxes involved in the elementwise computation can be done with lower time cost. Numerical experiments demonstrate the validity of this method. The proposed method is also applicable to some other kinds of PDEs.     

The use of adaptive grid refinement for badly behaved elliptic partial differential equations

Adaptive grid refinement is potentially a very powerful means of dealing with singularities and other types of misbehavior in the solutions of elliptic partial differential equations. Combined with the multi-level iterative technique for solving the matrix equations, the method can be implemented in a reasonably efficient fashion.     

A quasioptimal finite element method for elliptic interface problems

In [1] Babu?ka proposed perturbed variational methods for elliptic problems, with discontinuous coefficients. However, these methods are not quasioptimal, i.e. the approximate solutions generated by such methods do not reproduce the properties of “best approximation” possessed by the subspace of admissable approximants. In this paper we consider certain extrapolates obtained by use of a particular method of [1] and obtain “optimal” asymptotic error estimates. Our approach is similar to that of [7] where we proposed extrapolation methods for elliptic problems with smooth coefficients.