Analysis of first‐order partial differential equations via shifted Chebyshev polynomials

Abstract

The method of Chebyshev polynomials is introduced to represent approximate solutions of first‐order partial differential equations consisting of two independent variables. A set of linear algebraic equations is obtained by using the properties of Chebyshev polynomials and Kronecker product to analyse first‐order partial differential equations. The coefficient vector of Chebyshev polynomials of the first‐order partial differential equations can be obtained directly from Kronecker product formulas, which are suitable for computer computation. A numerical example for a set of first‐order partial differential equations is solved by a Chebyshev polynomials approximation and the results are satisfactory.     

Fast numerical methods for robust optimal design

A fast numerical approach for robust design optimization is presented. The core of the method is based on the state-of-the-art fast numerical methods for stochastic computations with parametric uncertainty. These methods employ generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) as a high-order representation for random quantities and a stochastic Galerkin (SG) or stochastic collocation (SC) approach to transform the original stochastic governing equations to a set of deterministic equations. The gPC-based SG and SC algorithms are able to produce highly accurate stochastic solutions with (much) reduced computational cost. It is demonstrated that they can serve as efficient forward problem solvers in robust design problems. Possible alternative definitions for robustness are also discussed. Traditional robust optimization seeks to minimize the variance (or standard deviation) of the response function while optimizing its mean. It can be shown that although variance can be used as a measure of uncertainty, it is a weak measure and may not fully reflect the output variability. Subsequently a strong measure in terms of the sensitivity derivatives of the response function is proposed as an alternative robust optimization definition. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the gPC-based algorithms, in both the traditional weak measure and the newly proposed strong measure.     

An enhanced data-driven polynomial chaos method for uncertainty propagation

As a novel type of polynomial chaos expansion (PCE), the data-driven PCE (DD-PCE) approach has been developed to have a wide range of potential applications for uncertainty propagation. While the research on DD-PCE is still ongoing, its merits compared with the existing PCE approaches have yet to be understood and explored, and its limitations also need to be addressed. In this article, the Galerkin projection technique in conjunction with the moment-matching equations is employed in DD-PCE for higher-dimensional uncertainty propagation. The enhanced DD-PCE method is then compared with current PCE methods to fully investigate its relative merits through four numerical examples considering different cases of information for random inputs. It is found that the proposed method could improve the accuracy, or in some cases leads to comparable results, demonstrating its effectiveness and advantages. Its application in dealing with a Mars entry trajectory optimization problem further verifies its effectiveness.     

A nonparametric probabilistic approach for quantifying uncertainties in low‐dimensional and high‐dimensional nonlinear models

A nonparametric probabilistic approach for modeling uncertainties in projection‐based, nonlinear, reduced‐order models is presented. When experimental data are available, this approach can also quantify uncertainties in the associated high‐dimensional models. The main underlying idea is twofold. First, to substitute the deterministic reduced‐order basis (ROB) with a stochastic counterpart. Second, to construct the probability measure of the stochastic reduced‐order basis (SROB) on a subset of a compact Stiefel manifold in order to preserve some important properties of a ROB. The stochastic modeling is performed so that the probability distribution of the constructed SROB depends on a small number of hyperparameters. These are determined by solving a reduced‐order statistical inverse problem. The mathematical properties of this novel approach for quantifying model uncertainties are analyzed through theoretical developments and numerical simulations. Its potential is demonstrated through several example problems from computational structural dynamics. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

eXtended Stochastic Finite Element Method for the numerical simulation of heterogeneous materials with random material interfaces

An eXtended Stochastic Finite Element Method has been recently proposed for the numerical solution of partial differential equations defined on random domains. This method is based on a marriage between the eXtended Finite Element Method and spectral stochastic methods. In this article, we propose an extension of this method for the numerical simulation of random multi‐phased materials. The random geometry of material interfaces is described implicitly by using random level set functions. A fixed deterministic finite element mesh, which is not conforming to the random interfaces, is then introduced in order to approximate the geometry and the solution. Classical spectral stochastic finite element approximation spaces are not able to capture the irregularities of the solution field with respect to spatial and stochastic variables, which leads to a deterioration of the accuracy and convergence properties of the approximate solution. In order to recover optimal convergence properties of the approximation, we propose an extension of the partition of unity method to the spectral stochastic framework. This technique allows the enrichment of approximation spaces with suitable functions based on an a priori knowledge of the irregularities in the solution. Numerical examples illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method and demonstrate the relevance of the enrichment procedure. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.