A finite element collocation method for the exact control of a parabolic problem

A finite element method is given for the problem of exact control of a linear parabolic equation. The basis functions consist of piecewise bicubic polynomials and the differential equation is satisfied at Gaussian collocation points within each element. The overdetermined system of equations obtained is solved by the method of least squares, and a convergence argument is given for the complete procedure. Numerical results are given for two problems of boundary control.     

Hybrid finite element/volume method for shallow water equations

A hybrid numerical scheme based on finite element and finite volume methods is developed to solve shallow water equations. In the recent past, we introduced a series of hybrid methods to solve incompressible low and high Reynolds number flows for single and two‐fluid flow problems. The present work extends the application of hybrid method to shallow water equations. In our hybrid shallow water flow solver, we write the governing equations in non‐conservation form and solve the non‐linear wave equation using finite element method with linear interpolation functions in space. On the other hand, the momentum equation is solved with highly accurate cell‐center finite volume method. Our hybrid numerical scheme is truly a segregated method with primitive variables stored and solved at both node and element centers. To enhance the stability of the hybrid method around discontinuities, we introduce a new shock capturing which will act only around sharp interfaces without sacrificing the accuracy elsewhere. Matrix‐free GMRES iterative solvers are used to solve both the wave and momentum equations in finite element and finite volume schemes. Several test problems are presented to demonstrate the robustness and applicability of the numerical method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Post buckling analysis of shear deformable shallow shells by the boundary element method

This paper presents four boundary element formulations for post buckling analysis of shear deformable shallow shells. The main differences between the formulations rely on the way non‐linear terms are treated and on the number of degrees of freedom in the domain. Boundary integral equations are obtained by coupling boundary element formulation of shear deformable plate and two‐dimensional plane stress elasticity. Four different sets of non‐linear integral equations are presented. Some domain integrals are treated directly with domain discretization whereas others are dealt indirectly with the dual reciprocity method. Each set of non‐linear boundary integral equations are solved using an incremental approach, where loads and prescribed boundary conditions are applied in small but finite increments. The resulting systems of equations are solved using a purely incremental technique and the Newton–Raphson technique with the Arc length method. Finally, the effect of imperfections (obtained from a linear buckling analysis) on the post‐buckling behaviour of axially compressed shallow shells is investigated. Results of several benchmark examples are compared with the published work and good agreement is obtained. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transient heat conduction analysis in a piecewise homogeneous domain by a coupled boundary and finite element method

A coupled finite element–boundary element analysis method for the solution of transient two‐dimensional heat conduction equations involving dissimilar materials and geometric discontinuities is developed. Along the interfaces between different material regions of the domain, temperature continuity and energy balance are enforced directly. Also, a special algorithm is implemented in the boundary element method (BEM) to treat the existence of corners of arbitrary angles along the boundary of the domain. Unknown interface fluxes are expressed in terms of unknown interface temperatures by using the boundary element method for each material region of the domain. Energy balance and temperature continuity are used for the solution of unknown interface temperatures leading to a complete set of boundary conditions in each region, thus allowing the solution of the remaining unknown boundary quantities. The concepts developed for the BEM formulation of a domain with dissimilar regions is employed in the finite element–boundary element coupling procedure. Along the common boundaries of FEM–BEM regions, fluxes from specific BEM regions are expressed in terms of common boundary (interface) temperatures, then integrated and lumped at the nodal points of the common FEM–BEM boundary so that they are treated as boundary conditions in the analysis of finite element method (FEM) regions along the common FEM–BEM boundary. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A least‐squares coupling method between a finite element code and a discrete element code

This paper presents a coupling method between a discrete element code CeaMka3D and a finite element code Sem. The coupling is based on a least‐squares method, which adds terms of forces to finite element code and imposes the velocity at coupling particles. For each coupling face, a small linear system with a constant matrix is solved. This method remains conservative in energy and shows good results in applications. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An h‐hierarchical adaptive procedure for the scaled boundary finite‐element method

The scaled boundary finite‐element method (a novel semi‐analytical method for solving linear partial differential equations) involves the solution of a quadratic eigenproblem, the computational expense of which rises rapidly as the number of degrees of freedom increases. Consequently, it is desirable to use the minimum number of degrees of freedom necessary to achieve the accuracy desired. Stress recovery and error estimation techniques for the method have recently been developed. This paper describes an h‐hierarchical adaptive procedure for the scaled boundary finite‐element method. To allow full advantage to be taken of the ability of the scaled boundary finite‐element method to model stress singularities at the scaling centre, and to avoid discretization of certain adjacent segments of the boundary, a sub‐structuring technique is used. The effectiveness of the procedure is demonstrated through a set of examples. The procedure is compared with a similar h‐hierarchical finite element procedure. Since the error estimators in both cases evaluate the energy norm of the stress error, the computational cost of solutions of similar overall accuracy can be compared directly. The examples include the first reported direct comparison of the computational efficiency of the scaled boundary finite‐element method and the finite element method. The scaled boundary finite‐element method is found to reduce the computational effort considerably. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three‐dimensional steady thermal stress analysis by triple‐reciprocity boundary element method

The steady thermal stress problems without heat generation can be solved easily by the boundary element method. However, for the case with arbitrary heat generation, the domain integral is necessary. In this paper, it is shown that the problems of three‐dimensional steady thermal stress with heat generation can be approximately solved without the domain integral by the triple‐reciprocity boundary element method. In this method, an arbitrary distribution of heat generation is interpolated by boundary integral equations. In order to solve the problem, the values of heat generation at internal points and on the boundary are used. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A combined extended finite element and level set method for biofilm growth

This paper presents a computational technique based on the extended finite element method (XFEM) and the level set method for the growth of biofilms. The discontinuous‐derivative enrichment of the standard finite element approximation eliminates the need for the finite element mesh to coincide with the biofilm–fluid interface and also permits the introduction of the discontinuity in the normal derivative of the substrate concentration field at the biofilm–fluid interface. The XFEM is coupled with a comprehensive level set update scheme with velocity extensions, which makes updating the biofilm interface fast and accurate without need for remeshing. The kinetics of biofilms are briefly given and the non‐linear strong and weak forms are presented. The non‐linear system of equations is solved using a Newton–Raphson scheme. Example problems including 1D and 2D biofilm growth are presented to illustrate the accuracy and utility of the method. The 1D results we obtain are in excellent agreement with previous 1D results obtained using finite difference methods. Our 2D results that simulate finger formation and finger‐tip splitting in biofilms illustrate the robustness of the present computational technique. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Legendre spectral element method for the Stefan problem

In this paper we present a Legendre spectral element method for solution of multi-dimensional unsteady change-of-phase Stefan problems. The spectral element method is a high-order (p-type) finite element technique, in which the computational domain is broken up into general (curved) quadrilateral macroelements, and the solution, data and geometry are expanded within each element in terms of tensor-product Lagrangian interpolants. The discrete equations are generated by a Galerkin formulation followed by Gauss–Lobatto Legendre quadrature, for which it is shown that exponential convergence to smooth solutions is obtained as the polynomial order of fixed elements is increased. The spectral element equations are inverted by conjugate gradient iteration, in which the matrix-vector products are calculated efficiently using tensor-product sum-factorization. To solve the Stefan problem numerically, the heat equations in the liquid and solid phases are transformed to fixed domains applying an interface-local time-dependent immobilization transformation technique. The modified heat equations are discretized using finite differences in time, resulting at each time step in a Helmholtz equation in space that is solved using Legendre spectral element elliptic discretizations. The new interface position is then computed using a variationally consistent flux treatment along the phase boundary, and the solution is projected upon the corresponding updated mesh. The rapid convergence rate and stability of the method are discussed, and numerical results are presented for a one-dimensional Stefan problem using both a semi-implicit and a fully implicit time-stepping scheme. Finally, a two-dimensional Stefan problem with a complex phase boundary is solved using the semi-implicit scheme.     

Dynamical micromagnetics by the finite element method

We developed a new numerical procedure to study dynamical behavior in micromagnetic systems. This procedure solves the damped Gilbert equation for a continuous magnetic medium, including all interactions in standard micromagnetic theory in three-dimensional regions of arbitrary geometry and physical properties. The magnetization is linearly interpolated in each tetrahedral element in a finite element mesh from its value on the nodes, and the Galerkin method is used to discretize the dynamic equation. We compute the demagnetizing field by solution of Poisson's equation and treat the external region by means of an asymptotic boundary condition. The procedure is implemented in the general purpose dynamical micromagnetic code (GDM). GDM uses a backward differential formula to solve the stiff ordinary differential equations system and the generalized minimum residual method with an incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient preconditioner to solve the linear equations. GDM is fully parallelized using MPI and runs on massively parallel processor supercomputers, clusters of workstations, and single processor computers. We have successfully applied GDM to studies of the switching processes in isolated prolate ellipsoidal particles and in a system of multiple particles     

A fast boundary cloud method for 3D exterior electrostatic analysis

An accelerated boundary cloud method (BCM) for boundary‐only analysis of 3D electrostatic problems is presented here. BCM uses scattered points unlike the classical boundary element method (BEM) which uses boundary elements to discretize the surface of the conductors. BCM combines the weighted least‐squares approach for the construction of approximation functions with a boundary integral formulation for the governing equations. A linear base interpolating polynomial that can vary from cloud to cloud is employed. The boundary integrals are computed by using a cell structure and different schemes have been used to evaluate the weakly singular and non‐singular integrals. A singular value decomposition (SVD) based acceleration technique is employed to solve the dense linear system of equations arising in BCM. The performance of BCM is compared with BEM for several 3D examples. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element solution of free‐surface ship‐wave problems

An unstructured finite element solver to evaluate the ship‐wave problem is presented. The scheme uses a non‐structured finite element algorithm for the Euler or Navier–Stokes flow as for the free‐surface boundary problem. The incompressible flow equations are solved via a fractional step method whereas the non‐linear free‐surface equation is solved via a reference surface which allows fixed and moving meshes. A new non‐structured stabilized approximation is used to eliminate spurious numerical oscillations of the free surface. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A coding error elimination procedure for verifying finite element programs with forced and natural boundary conditions

The general procedure developed by Shih for eliminating computer coding errors has been both simplified for finite element applications and extended for use in the verification of the coding of forced and natural boundary conditions. To accomplish these two objectives simultaneously, use is made of volume weighted residuals for all elements within the solution regime and of area weighted boundary residuals for all elements having natural boundary conditions on one or more of their borders. This procedure can thus be used to verify finite element codes with a combination of both forced (Dirichlet) and natural (Neumann and Robbins) boundary conditions. Depending on the equations being solved and the boundary conditions they are being subjected to, this modification can make possible the implementation of Shih's general procedure into existing finite element codes without having to carry out any additional discretization steps. The employment of this modified procedure is illustrated using two‐dimensional (2‐D) stress analysis and transient heat conduction problems. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A modified scaled boundary finite element method for three‐dimensional dynamic soil‐structure interaction in layered soil

This paper is devoted to the analysis of elastodynamic problems in 3D‐layered systems which are unbounded in the horizontal direction. For this purpose, a finite element model of the near field is coupled to a scaled boundary finite element model (SBFEM) of the far field. The SBFEM is originally based on describing the geometry of a half‐space or full‐space domain by scaling the geometry of the near field / far field interface using a radial coordinate. A modified form of the SBFEM for waves in a 2D layer is also available. None of these existing formulations can be used to describe a 3D‐layered medium. In this paper, a modified SBFEM for the analysis of 3D‐layered continua is derived. Based on the use of a scaling line instead of a scaling centre, a suitable scaled boundary transformation is proposed. The derivation of the corresponding scaled boundary finite element (SBFE) equations in displacement and stiffness is presented in detail. The latter is a nonlinear differential equation with respect to the radial coordinate, which has to be solved numerically for each excitation frequency considered in the analysis. Various numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy of the new method and its correct implementation. These include rigid circular and square foundations embedded in or resting on the surface of layered homogeneous or inhomogeneous 3D soil deposits over rigid bedrock. Hysteretic damping is assumed in some cases. The dynamic stiffness coefficients calculated using the proposed method are compared with analytical solutions or existing highly accurate numerical results. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite element solution of a tidal current problem in the seto inland sea by using the ICCG method

When the finite element method is applied to the analysis of tidal currents in an inland sea with many islands, a system of linear equations with large band and sparse coefficient matrix is solved at each time step, and therefore the finite element methods usually suffer a severe economic disadvantage for practical calculations. The method used in this paper for solving a system of linear equations with large band and sparse coefficient matrix is the incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient (ICCG) method: The ICCG method was compared with other methods such as the Gaussian elimination method, the Gauss–Seidel method and the conjugate gradient method. This method showed significant improvement in computation time and it can overcome the disadvantage that the efficiency to solve the matrix equations which appear in the finite element analysis of tidal currents usually diminishes as the bandwidth grows. The simulation results of tidal currents in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan were compared with field data and good agreements were obtained.     

Numerical solution of eddy current problems in ferromagnetic bodies travelling in a transverse magnetic field

Eddy currents are investigated in a ferromagnetic bar travelling in a transverse magnetic field. Such an open boundary field problem is analysed by a hybrid approach based on Galerkin finite element formulation coupled with a separation of variables. A steady state is considered, introducing time‐periodic boundary conditions. The resultant system of non‐linear equations is solved by an iterative procedure based on Brouwer's fixed‐point theorem. Numerical results are presented for a bar of circular cross‐section made of cast steel or cast iron. Selected examples of the field distribution and characteristics of eddy‐current power losses are enclosed in graphic form. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computational method for atomistic homogenization of nanopatterned point defect structures

The development of an approximation method that rigorously averages small‐scale atomistic physics and embeds them in large‐scale mechanics is the principal aim of this work. This paper presents a general computational procedure based on homogenization to average frozen nanoscale atomistics and couple them to the equations of continuum hyperelasticity. The proposed application is to nanopatterned systems in which complex atomic configurations are organized in a repeating periodic array. The finite element method is used to solve the equations at the large scale, but the small‐scale equation is representative of lattice‐statics. The method is predicated on a quasistatic zero‐temperature assumption and, through homogenization, leads to a coupled set of variational equations. The numerical procedure is presented in detail, and 2‐D examples of ultra thin film layers of carbon one atom thick are shown to illustrate its applicability. Homogenization naturally gives rise to an inner displacement term with which point defects are explicitly modelled and their non‐linear interactions with global states of multiaxial strain are studied. Published in 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Axisymmetric nonlinear analysis of shallow spherical shells by a combined boundary element and finite difference method

This paper is concerned with the development of the mixed boundary element method and finite element method for the analysis of spherical annular shells under axisymmetric loads. The boundary element techniques are used to solve the equilibrium equation of shells and the central difference operator is adopted to deal with the compatibility equations. Iterative techniques are used throughout the analysis procedure. A number of numerical examples are given in the paper to illustrate the validity of the present approach.     

An element‐wise,locally conservative Galerkin (LCG) method for solving diffusion and convection–diffusion problems

An element‐wise locally conservative Galerkin (LCG) method is employed to solve the conservation equations of diffusion and convection–diffusion. This approach allows the system of simultaneous equations to be solved over each element. Thus, the traditional assembly of elemental contributions into a global matrix system is avoided. This simplifies the calculation procedure over the standard global (continuous) Galerkin method, in addition to explicitly establishing element‐wise flux conservation. In the LCG method, elements are treated as sub‐domains with weakly imposed Neumann boundary conditions. The LCG method obtains a continuous and unique nodal solution from the surrounding element contributions via averaging. It is also shown in this paper that the proposed LCG method is identical to the standard global Galerkin (GG) method, at both steady and unsteady states, for an inside node. Thus, the method, has all the advantages of the standard GG method while explicitly conserving fluxes over each element. Several problems of diffusion and convection–diffusion are solved on both structured and unstructured grids to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the LCG method. Both linear and quadratic elements are used in the calculations. For convection‐dominated problems, Petrov–Galerkin weighting and high‐order characteristic‐based temporal schemes have been implemented into the LCG formulation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.