Errors in one-step schemes for solution of the heat flow equation (Q1823626)

The quasilinear parabolic problem \(\partial_ tu-\nabla (a(t,x,u)\nabla u)=f(t,x,u)\) with periodic initial condition and with mixed boundary conditions is considered. Here, a(t,x,s), f(t,x,s) are Lipschitz continuous in s and \(\Omega \subset R^ 3\) is bounded. Denote \(e=u- u_{\alpha}\), \(z=u-w_{\alpha}\) where \(u_{\alpha}\) is the discretized approximate \(solution(\alpha =(\Delta t,\lambda))\), \(w_{\alpha}\in W_{\alpha}(0,T)=\{v\in L_ 2(0,T;V_{\alpha}),\quad \partial_ tv\in L_ 2(0,T;H^ 1),\quad v(0)=v(T)\}\) and \(V_{\alpha}\equiv V_{\lambda}\to V\) for \(\lambda\) \(\to 0\). Here, \(V_{\lambda}\) is finite dimensional and \(H^ 1_ 0\subset V\subset H^ 1\) \((H^ 1\equiv W^ 1_ 2(\Omega)\)-Sobolev space). The author obtains the error estimate \[ J=\int^{T}_{0}\| e\|^ 2dt\leq C\inf_{w\in W(0,T)\cap L_ 2(0,T;V_{\alpha})}(\int \quad^{T}_{0}(\| z\|^ 2+| \partial_ t^{\Delta t}z|^ 2)dt+C(\Delta t)^ 4) \] which can be reduced to \(J\leq C(\lambda^{2r-2}+(\Delta t)^ 4)\) where \(\lambda\) is the upper bound of the diameter of triangulation and r is the degree of the polynomials used for basic functions. By \(\| \cdot \|\), \(| \cdot |\) we denote the norms in \(H^ 1\), \(L_ 2\), respectively.