Finite element schemes with tangential motion for fourth order geometric curve evolutions in arbitrary codimension (Q6926532)

Two of the most frequently studied energies are the length functional and the elastic energy, which are of interest in differential geometry, materials science, continuum mechanics, biological applications, microelectronics and computer vision. In this paper, the numerical approximation of curve diffusion and elastic flow are investigated. Both of these fourth order geometric evolution equations are closely related, and therefore numerical analysis can be applied to both cases.\N\NA suitable tangential motion is introduced in partial differential equations describing the curve diffusion and elastic diffusion in such a way that the obtained system of partial differential equations; is strictly parabolic, asymptotically exhibits solutions that are nearly arclength parameterizations, admits a weak formulation that is amenable to discretization by finite elements with a corresponding error analysis. Numerical simulations, confirm the derived error bounds and suggest that the tangential motion leads to equidistribution in practice.