Co-volume methods for degenerate parabolic problems (Q1326425)

A completely volume (co-volume) technique is used for developing a physically appealing algorithm for the solution of degenerate parabolic problems such as for example a Stefan problem which models heat conduction in a material which may undergo a change in phase. In each of phases, the balance of energy reduces to the classical heat conduction problem, \(de/dt - k_ i \Delta u = f\) in \(\Omega_ i\), where \(e\) is the energy, \(u\) the temperature and \(k_ i\) the conductivity in phase \(i\) which currently occupies a region \(\Omega_ i \subset \Omega\). In each phase, \(u\) is typically an affine function of the energy \(e\) with the slope \(c_ i\), the specific heat of the \(i\)th phase; however, any monotone function of \(e\) may be accomodated. It is shown that the suggested algorithms give rise to a discrete semigroup theory that parallels the continuous problem. In particular, the discrete Stefan problem gives rise to a nonlinear semigroup in both the discrete \(L^ 1\) and \(H^{-1}\) spaces.