Second order in time finite element schemes for curve shortening flow and curve diffusion (Q6858926)

Finite element schemes are introduced for both the curve shortening flow and curve diffusion in \(\mathbb{R}^d\), \(d\ge 2\). The tangential velocity has the effect that the resulting systems are strictly parabolic and that the corresponding finite element discretizations are well-behaved with respect to the distribution of grid points. The predictor-corrector approach is used in order to obtain schemes that are of second order in time. The predictor step computes an approximation with a known first order scheme, which is subsequently used in a Crank-Nicolson-type step to calculate the discrete solution. In this way, a simple method is obtained that only requires the solution of two linear systems in each time step. Combining this new time discretization with a spatial discretization by continuous, piecewise linear finite elements, the authors prove that the resulting method is stable and convergent of optimal order in space and time. Numerical experiments demonstrate second order convergence as well as asymptotic equidistribution.