Two-grid method for nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations by mixed finite element methods (Q429964)

The authors use a two-grid algorithm to linearize nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations discretized by a mixed finite element method. The key ingredient of the two-grid method is the use of one Newton iteration on the fine grid. It is shown that if the coarse grid, \(H\), and the fine grid, \(h\), satisfy \(H = O(h^{1/2})\) the two-grid algorithm can achieve the same accuracy as the mixed finite element solution. Generally speaking, different aspects of a complex problem can be treated by spaces of different scales. For the problem on hand, a very coarse grid space is sufficient for a nonlinear problem that is dominated by its linear part. The two-grid method provides a new approach to take advantage of some nice properties hidden in a complex problem. Results are confirmed numerically.