An augmented fully-mixed finite element method for the stationary Boussinesq problem

In this paper we propose and analyze a new fully-mixed finite element method for the stationary Boussinesq problem. More precisely, we reformulate a previous primal-mixed scheme for the respective model by holding the same modified pseudostress tensor depending on the pressure, and the diffusive and convective terms of the Navier–Stokes equations for the fluid; and in contrast, we now introduce a new auxiliary vector unknown involving the temperature, its gradient and the velocity for the heat equation. As a consequence, a mixed approach is carried out in heat as well as fluid equation, and differently from the previous scheme, no boundary unknowns are needed, which leads to an improvement of the method from both the theoretical and computational point of view. In fact, the pressure is eliminated and as a result the unknowns are given by the aforementioned auxiliary variables, the velocity and the temperature of the fluid. In addition, for reasons of suitable regularity conditions, the scheme is augmented by using the constitutive and equilibrium equations, and the Dirichlet boundary conditions. Then, the resulting formulation is rewritten as a fixed point problem and its well-posedness is guaranteed by the classical Banach theorem combined with the Lax–Milgram theorem. As for the associated Galerkin scheme, the Brouwer and the Banach fixed point theorems are utilized to establish existence and uniqueness of discrete solution, respectively. In particular, Raviart–Thomas spaces of order k for the auxiliary unknowns and continuous piecewise polynomials of degree \(\le k +1\) for the velocity and the temperature become feasible choices. Finally, we derive optimal a priori error estimates and provide several numerical results illustrating the good performance of the scheme and confirming the theoretical rates of convergence.     

A Linearized Local Conservative Mixed Finite Element Method for Poisson–Nernst–Planck Equations

In this paper, a linearized local conservative mixed finite element method is proposed and analyzed for Poisson–Nernst–Planck (PNP) equations, where the mass fluxes and the potential flux are introduced as new vector-valued variables to equations of ionic concentrations (Nernst–Planck equations) and equation of the electrostatic potential (Poisson equation), respectively. These flux variables are crucial to PNP equations on determining the Debye layer and computing the electric current in an accurate fashion. The Raviart–Thomas mixed finite element is employed for the spatial discretization, while the backward Euler scheme with linearization is adopted for the temporal discretization and decoupling nonlinear terms, thus three linear equations are separately solved at each time step. The proposed method is more efficient in practice, and locally preserves the mass conservation. By deriving the boundedness of numerical solutions in certain strong norms, an unconditionally optimal error analysis is obtained for all six unknowns: the concentrations p and n, the mass fluxes \({{\varvec{J}}}_p=\nabla p + p {\varvec{\sigma }}\) and \({{\varvec{J}}}_n=\nabla n - n {\varvec{\sigma }}\), the potential \(\psi \) and the potential flux \({\varvec{\sigma }}= \nabla \psi \) in \(L^{\infty }(L^2)\) norm. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the efficiency and to validate the convergence theorem of the proposed method.     

A Hybridized Discontinuous Galerkin Method with Reduced Stabilization

In this paper, we propose a hybridized discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method with reduced stabilization for the Poisson equation. The reduce stabilization proposed here enables us to use piecewise polynomials of degree \(k\) and \(k-1\) for the approximations of element and inter-element unknowns, respectively, unlike the standard HDG methods. We provide the error estimates in the energy and \(L^2\) norms under the chunkiness condition. In the case of \(k=1\), it can be shown that the proposed method is closely related to the Crouzeix–Raviart nonconforming finite element method. Numerical results are presented to verify the validity of the proposed method.     

A C^0-Weak Galerkin Finite Element Method for the Biharmonic Equation

A $C^0$ -weak Galerkin (WG) method is introduced and analyzed in this article for solving the biharmonic equation in 2D and 3D. A discrete weak Laplacian is defined for $C^0$ functions, which is then used to design the weak Galerkin finite element scheme. This WG finite element formulation is symmetric, positive definite and parameter free. Optimal order error estimates are established for the weak Galerkin finite element solution in both a discrete $H^2$ norm and the standard $H^1$ and $L^2$ norms with appropriate regularity assumptions. Numerical results are presented to confirm the theory. As a technical tool, a refined Scott-Zhang interpolation operator is constructed to assist the corresponding error estimates. This refined interpolation preserves the volume mass of order $(k+1-d)$ and the surface mass of order $(k+2-d)$ for the $P_{k+2}$ finite element functions in $d$ -dimensional space.     

A Weak Galerkin Finite Element Method for the Maxwell Equations

This paper introduces a numerical scheme for the time-harmonic Maxwell equations by using weak Galerkin (WG) finite element methods. The WG finite element method is based on two operators: discrete weak curl and discrete weak gradient, with appropriately defined stabilizations that enforce a weak continuity of the approximating functions. This WG method is highly flexible by allowing the use of discontinuous approximating functions on arbitrary shape of polyhedra and, at the same time, is parameter free. Optimal-order of convergence is established for the WG approximations in various discrete norms which are either \(H^1\)-like or \(L^2\) and \(L^2\)-like. An effective implementation of the WG method is developed through variable reduction by following a Schur-complement approach, yielding a system of linear equations involving unknowns associated with element boundaries only. Numerical results are presented to confirm the theory of convergence.     

An Adaptive Moving Mesh Finite Element Solution of the Regularized Long Wave Equation

An adaptive moving mesh finite element method is proposed for the numerical solution of the regularized long wave (RLW) equation. A moving mesh strategy based on the so-called moving mesh PDE is used to adaptively move the mesh to improve computational accuracy and efficiency. The RLW equation represents a class of partial differential equations containing spatial-time mixed derivatives. For the numerical solution of those equations, a \(C^0\) finite element method cannot apply directly on a moving mesh since the mixed derivatives of the finite element approximation may not be defined. To avoid this difficulty, a new variable is introduced and the RLW equation is rewritten into a system of two coupled equations. The system is then discretized using linear finite elements in space and the fifth-order Radau IIA scheme in time. A range of numerical examples in one and two dimensions, including the RLW equation with one or two solitary waves and special initial conditions that lead to the undular bore and solitary train solutions, are presented. Numerical results demonstrate that the method has a second order convergence and is able to move and adapt the mesh to the evolving features in the solution.     

Hybrid numerical methods to solve shallow water equations for hurricane induced storm surge modeling

In this paper an efficient numerical method based on hybrid finite element and finite volume techniques to solve hurricane induced storm surge flow problem is presented. A segregated implicit projection method is used to solve the 2D shallow water equations on staggered unstructured meshes. The governing equations are written in non-conservation form. An intermediate velocity field is first obtained by solving the momentum equations with the matrix-free implicit cell-centered finite volume method. The nonlinear wave equation is solved by the node-based Galerkin finite element method. This staggered-mesh scheme is distinct from other conventional approaches in that the velocity components and auxiliary variables are stored at cell centers and vertices, respectively. The present model uses an implicit method, which is very efficient and can use a large time step without losing accuracy and stability.The hurricane induced wind stress and pressure, bottom friction, Coriolis effect, and tidal forcing conditions are implemented in this model. The levee overtopping option is implemented in the model as well. Hurricane Katrina (2005) storm surge has been simulated to demonstrate the robustness and applicability of the model.     

The Discrete Stochastic Galerkin Method for Hyperbolic Equations with Non-smooth and Random Coefficients

We develop a general polynomial chaos (gPC) based stochastic Galerkin (SG) for hyperbolic equations with random and singular coefficients. Due to the singular nature of the solution, the standard gPC-SG methods may suffer from a poor or even non convergence. Taking advantage of the fact that the discrete solution, by the central type finite difference or finite volume approximations in space and time for example, is smoother, we first discretize the equation by a smooth finite difference or finite volume scheme, and then use the gPC-SG approximation to the discrete system. The jump condition at the interface is treated using the immersed upwind methods introduced in Jin (Proc Symp Appl Math 67(1):93–104, 2009) and Jin and Wen (Commun Math Sci 3:285–315, 2005). This yields a method that converges with the spectral accuracy for finite mesh size and time step. We use a linear hyperbolic equation with discontinuous and random coefficient, and the Liouville equation with discontinuous and random potential, to illustrate our idea, with both one and second order spatial discretizations. Spectral convergence is established for the first equation, and numerical examples for both equations show the desired accuracy of the method.     

Convergence of a decoupled mixed FEM for the dynamic Ginzburg–Landau equations in nonsmooth domains with incompatible initial data

In this paper, we propose a fully discrete mixed finite element method for solving the time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau equations, and prove the convergence of the finite element solutions in general curved polyhedra, possibly nonconvex and multi-connected, without assumptions on the regularity of the solution. Global existence and uniqueness of weak solutions for the PDE problem are also obtained in the meantime. A decoupled time-stepping scheme is introduced, which guarantees that the discrete solution has bounded discrete energy, and the finite element spaces are chosen to be compatible with the nonlinear structure of the equations. Based on the boundedness of the discrete energy, we prove the convergence of the finite element solutions by utilizing a uniform \(L^{3+\delta }\) regularity of the discrete harmonic vector fields, establishing a discrete Sobolev embedding inequality for the Nédélec finite element space, and introducing a \(\ell ^2(W^{1,3+\delta })\) estimate for fully discrete solutions of parabolic equations. The numerical example shows that the constructed mixed finite element solution converges to the true solution of the PDE problem in a nonsmooth and multi-connected domain, while the standard Galerkin finite element solution does not converge.     

Discontinuous subgrid formulations for transport problems

In this paper we develop two discontinuous Galerkin formulations within the framework of the two-scale subgrid method for solving advection–diffusion-reaction equations. We reformulate, using broken spaces, the nonlinear subgrid scale (NSGS) finite element model in which a nonlinear eddy viscosity term is introduced only to the subgrid scales of a finite element mesh. Here, two new subgrid formulations are built by introducing subgrid stabilized terms either at the element level or on the edges by means of the residual of the approximated resolved scale solution inside each element and the jump of the subgrid solution across interelement edges. The amount of subgrid viscosity is scaled by the resolved scale solution at the element level, yielding a self adaptive method so that no additional stabilization parameter is required. Numerical experiments are conducted in order to demonstrate the behavior of the proposed methodology in comparison with some discontinuous Galerkin methods.     

Convergence to Suitable Weak Solutions for a Finite Element Approximation of the Navier–Stokes Equations with Numerical Subgrid Scale Modeling

In this article, a Galerkin finite element approximation for a class of time–space fractional differential equation is studied, under the assumption that \(u_{tt}, u_{ttt}, u_{2\alpha ,tt}\) are continuous for \(\varOmega \times (0,T]\), but discontinuous at time \(t=0\). In spatial direction, the Galerkin finite element method is presented. And in time direction, a Crank–Nicolson time-stepping is used to approximate the fractional differential term, and the product trapezoidal method is employed to treat the temporal fractional integral term. By using the properties of the fractional Ritz projection and the fractional Ritz–Volterra projection, the convergence analyses of semi-discretization scheme and full discretization scheme are derived separately. Due to the lack of smoothness of the exact solution, the numerical accuracy does not achieve second order convergence in time, which is \(O(k^{3-\beta }+k^{3}t_{n+1}^{-\beta }+k^{3}t_{n+1}^{-\beta -1})\), \(n=0,1,\ldots ,N-1\). But the convergence order in time is shown to be greater than one. Numerical examples are also included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Superconvergence of Local Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Partial Differential Equations with Higher Order Derivatives

In this paper, we present a unified approach to study superconvergence behavior of the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method for high-order time-dependent partial differential equations. We select the third and fourth order equations as our models to demonstrate this approach and the main idea. Superconvergence results for the solution itself and the auxiliary variables are established. To be more precise, we first prove that, for any polynomial of degree k, the errors of numerical fluxes at nodes and for the cell averages are superconvergent under some suitable initial discretization, with an order of \(O(h^{2k+1})\). We then prove that the LDG solution is \((k+2)\)-th order superconvergent towards a particular projection of the exact solution and the auxiliary variables. As byproducts, we obtain a \((k+1)\)-th and \((k+2)\)-th order superconvergence rate for the derivative and function value approximation separately at a class of Radau points. Moreover, for the auxiliary variables, we, for the first time, prove that the convergence rate of the derivative error at the interior Radau points can reach as high as \(k+2\). Numerical experiments demonstrate that most of our error estimates are optimal, i.e., the error bounds are sharp.     

A posteriori error analysis of an augmented fully-mixed formulation for the stationary Boussinesq model

In this paper we undertake an a posteriori error analysis along with its adaptive computation of a new augmented fully-mixed finite element method that we have recently proposed to numerically simulate heat driven flows in the Boussinesq approximation setting. Our approach incorporates as additional unknowns a modified pseudostress tensor field and an auxiliary vector field in the fluid and heat equations, respectively, which possibilitates the elimination of the pressure. This unknown, however, can be easily recovered by a postprocessing formula. In turn, redundant Galerkin terms are included into the weak formulation to ensure well-posedness. In this way, the resulting variational formulation is a four-field augmented scheme, whose Galerkin discretization allows a Raviart–Thomas approximation for the auxiliary unknowns and a Lagrange approximation for the velocity and the temperature. In the present work, we propose a reliable and efficient, fully-local and computable, residual-based a posteriori error estimator in two and three dimensions for the aforementioned method. Standard arguments based on duality techniques, stable Helmholtz decompositions, and well-known results from previous works, are the main underlying tools used in our methodology. Several numerical experiments illustrate the properties of the estimator and further validate the expected behavior of the associated adaptive algorithm.     

A meshless Galerkin method for Stokes problems using boundary integral equations

A meshless Galerkin scheme for the simulation of two-dimensional incompressible viscous fluid flows in primitive variables is described in this paper. This method combines a boundary integral formulation for the Stokes equation with the moving least-squares (MLS) approximations for construction of trial and test functions for Galerkin approximations. Unlike the domain-type method, this scheme requires only a nodal structure on the bounding surface of a body for approximation of boundary unknowns, thus it is especially suitable for the exterior problems. Compared to other meshless methods such as the boundary node method and the element free Galerkin method, in which the MLS is also introduced, boundary conditions do not present any difficulty in using this meshless method. The convergence and error estimates of this approach are presented. Numerical examples are also given to show the efficiency of the method.     

A Local Discontinuous Galerkin Method for the Propagation of Phase Transition in Solids and Fluids

A local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) finite element method for the solution of a hyperbolic–elliptic system modeling the propagation of phase transition in solids and fluids is presented. Viscosity and capillarity terms are added to select the physically relevant solution. The $L^2-$ stability of the LDG method is proven for basis functions of arbitrary polynomial order. In addition, using a priori error analysis, we provide an error estimate for the LDG discretization of the phase transition model when the stress–strain relation is linear, assuming that the solution is sufficiently smooth and the system is hyperbolic. Also, results of a linear stability analysis to determine the time step are presented. To obtain a reference exact solution we solved a Riemann problem for a trilinear strain–stress relation using a kinetic relation to select the unique admissible solution. This exact solution contains both shocks and phase transitions. The LDG method is demonstrated by computing several model problems representing phase transition in solids and in fluids with a Van der Waals equation of state. The results show the convergence properties of the LDG method.     

HDG Methods for Naghdi Arches

In this paper, we introduce and analyze a class of hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin methods for Naghdi arches. The main feature of these methods is that they can be implemented in an efficient way through a hybridization procedure which reduces the globally coupled unknowns to approximations to the transverse and tangential displacement and bending moment at the element boundaries. The error analysis of the methods is based on the use of a projection especially designed to fit the structure of the numerical traces of the method. This property allows to prove in a very concise manner that the projection of the errors is bounded in terms of the distance between the exact solution and its projection. The study of the influence of the stabilization function on the approximation is then reduced to the study of how they affect the approximation properties of the projection in a single element. Consequently, we prove that when polynomials of degree $k$ are used, the methods converge with the optimal order of $k+1$ for all the unknowns and that they are free from shear and membrane locking. Finally, we show that all the numerical traces converge with order $2k+1$ . Numerical experiments validating these results are shown.     

A Weak Galerkin Finite Element Method for a Type of Fourth Order Problem Arising from Fluorescence Tomography

In this paper, an innovative and effective numerical algorithm by the use of weak Galerkin (WG) finite element methods is proposed for a type of fourth order problem arising from fluorescence tomography. Fluorescence tomography is emerging as an in vivo non-invasive 3D imaging technique reconstructing images that characterize the distribution of molecules tagged by fluorophores. Weak second order elliptic operator and its discrete version are introduced for a class of discontinuous functions defined on a finite element partition of the domain consisting of general polygons or polyhedra. An error estimate of optimal order is derived in an \(H^2_{\kappa }\)-equivalent norm for the WG finite element solutions. Error estimates of optimal order except the lowest order finite element in the usual \(L^2\) norm are established for the WG finite element approximations. Numerical tests are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the theory established for the WG numerical algorithm.     

Two-Grid hp-Version Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Methods for Second-Order Quasilinear Elliptic PDEs

In this article we propose a class of so-called two-grid hp-version discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods for the numerical solution of a second-order quasilinear elliptic boundary value problem of monotone type. The key idea in this setting is to first discretise the underlying nonlinear problem on a coarse finite element space $V({{\mathcal {T}_{H}}},\boldsymbol {P})$ . The resulting ‘coarse’ numerical solution is then exploited to provide the necessary data needed to linearise the underlying discretisation on the finer space $V({{\mathcal {T}_{h}}},\boldsymbol {p})$ ; thereby, only a linear system of equations is solved on the richer space $V({{\mathcal {T}_{h}}},\boldsymbol {p})$ . In this article both the a priori and a posteriori error analysis of the two-grid hp-version discontinuous Galerkin finite element method is developed. Moreover, we propose and implement an hp-adaptive two-grid algorithm, which is capable of designing both the coarse and fine finite element spaces $V({{\mathcal {T}_{H}}},\boldsymbol {P})$ and $V({{\mathcal {T}_{h}}},\boldsymbol {p})$ , respectively, in an automatic fashion. Numerical experiments are presented for both two- and three-dimensional problems; in each case, we demonstrate that the CPU time required to compute the numerical solution to a given accuracy is typically less when the two-grid approach is exploited, when compared to the standard discontinuous Galerkin method.     

A simple weak formulation for solving two-dimensional diffusion equation with local reaction on the interface

In this paper, we propose a numerical method for solving two-dimensional diffusion equation with nonhomogeneous jump condition and nonlinear flux jump condition located at the interface. We use finite element method coupled with Newton’s method to deal with the jump conditions and to linearize the system. It is easy to implement. The grid used here is body-fitting grids based on the idea of semi-Cartesian grid. Numerical experiments show that this method is nearly second order accurate in the $L^{\infty }$ norm.     

Superconvergence of Finite Element Approximations for the Fractional Diffusion-Wave Equation

In this paper, the error estimates of fully discrete finite element approximation for the time fractional diffusion-wave equation are discussed. Based on the standard Galerkin finite element method approach for the spatial discretization and the L1 formula for the approximation of the time fractional derivative, the fully discrete scheme for solving the constant coefficient fractional diffusion-wave equation is obtained and the superconvergence estimate is proposed and analyzed. Further, a fully discrete finite element scheme is presented for solving the variable coefficient fractional diffusion-wave equation and the corresponding error estimates are also established. Finally, numerical experiments are included to support the theoretical results.