Bulk-surface virtual element method for systems of PDEs in two-space dimensions (Q1996228)

In this paper, a coupled bulk-surface PDE in two space dimensions is solved with a bulk-surface virtual element method (BSVEM). The BSPDE consists of a PDE in the bulk coupled to another PDE on the surface through general nonlinear boundary conditions. Linear elliptic and semilinear parabolic coupled BSPDE problems are approximated numerically with the BSVEM. The proposed method extends the BSFEM for BSRDSs [\textit{A. Madzvamuse} and \textit{A. H. W. Chung}, ``The bulk-surface finite element method for reaction-diffusion systems on stationary volumes'', Finite Elem. Anal. Des. 108, 9--21 (2016; \url{doi:10.1016/j.finel.2015.09.002})] and the VEM for linear elliptic [\textit{B. Da Veiga} et al., Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci. 23, No. 1, 199--214 (2013; Zbl 1416.65433)] and semilinear bulk parabolic problems on polygonal meshes [\textit{D. Adak} et al., Numer. Methods Partial Differ. Equations 35, No. 1, 222--245 (2019; Zbl 1419.65040)]. Polygonal bulk surface meshes in two space dimensions produce geometric errors of order \({\mathcal O}(h)\) in the bulk and \({\mathcal O}(h^2)\) on the surface, with the mesh size \(h\). It was shown that suitable polygonal meshes reduce the asymptotic computational complexity of matrix assembly. Numerical examples validate the convergence rate in space and time for both the elliptic and the parabolic case and demonstrate the computational advantages using polygonal meshes.