On uniform convergence rates for Eulerian and Lagrangian finite element approximations of convection-dominated diffusion problems (Q2504779)

The authors compare finite element discretizations of the linear convection-diffusion problem \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} \partial _{t}u+b\cdot \nabla u-\varepsilon \Delta u&=f\quad&&\text{in \(\Omega\) for }t\in( 0,T],\\ u&=0\quad&&\text{on \(\partial \Omega \) for }t\in (0,T],\\ u(0)&=u_{0}\quad&&\text{in }\Omega, \end{alignedat} \] in Eulerian and Lagrangian coordinates with respect to their \(\varepsilon\)-uniform convergence behaviour. The approximation in Eulerian coordinates is considered. The discretization is made by the finite element method, the result is a semidiscrete approximation scheme. The Lagrangian representation leads to another discretization by the finite element method. The authors present a rigorous and \(\varepsilon\)-uniform error estimate for the finite element approximations. It is ensured the convergence of the schemes and thus a correct approximation of the continuous solution even in the hyperbolic limit \(\varepsilon \rightarrow 0\). The Eulerian finite element approximation shows a suboptimal \(\varepsilon\)-uniform convergence behaviour whereas the Lagrangian approximation admits the optimal convergence rate. At the end of the paper some numerical examples are analyzed.