Convex hull property and maximum principle for finite element minimisers of general convex functionals

DOI10.1007/S00211-013-0527-7MaRDI QIDQ2391813zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Christian Kreuzer, S. Schwarzacher, Lars Diening

Publication date 5 August 2013

Published in Numerische Mathematik (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1302.0112

zbMATH Keywords

\(p\)-Laplacianconvex hull propertyenergy functionalfinite element methodmaximum principlemean curvature problemminimisationnumerical examples

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Existence theories for optimal control problems involving partial differential equations (49J20) Discrete approximations in optimal control (49M25) Numerical optimization and variational techniques (65K10)

Abstract: The convex hull property is the natural generalization of maximum principles from scalar to vector valued functions. Maximum principles for finite element approximations are often crucial for the preservation of qualitative properties of the respective physical model. In this work we develop a convex hull property for $P_1$ conforming finite elements on simplicial non-obtuse meshes. The proof does not resort to linear structures of partial differential equations but directly addresses properties of the minimiser of a convex energy functional. Therefore, the result holds for very general nonlinear partial differential equations including e.g. the $p$-Laplacian and the mean curvature problem. In the case of scalar equations the introduce techniques can be used to prove standard discrete maximum principles for nonlinear problems. We conclude by proving a strong discrete convex hull property on strictly acute triangulations.

Review text

For some classes of minimisation problems with energy functionals, the vector-valued solutions satisfy a convex hull property, see [\textit{M. Bildhauer} and \textit{M. Fuchs}, Asymptotic Anal. 32, No. 3--4, 293--315 (2002; Zbl 1076.49018)], for example. This convex hull property represents a generalisation of the maximum principle from scalar to vector-valued functions. In the current paper, the authors consider minimisation problems with a functional of the form \(J(v) = \int_\Omega f(x,\| \nabla v (x) \|) dx\) for vector-valued functions \(v\) with predetermined boundary conditions, where the Frobenius matrix norm is used. The domain \(\Omega\) is allowed to have an arbitrary dimension larger than one. A finite element method with a simplicial triangulation and piecewise linear polynomials yields a discretisation of the problem. The main result of the paper consists in the proof of the convex hull property for the solution of the discrete problem under certain assumptions. For example, the triangulation is required to be non-obtuse, i.e., a restriction on the angles between the sides of each simplex separately appears. Furthermore, the authors apply the theoretical results to show maximum principles for scalar quasilinear partial differential equations of elliptic type like the \(p\)-Laplace problem and the mean curvature problem. A strong convex hull property is proved for nonlinear elliptic equations with vector-valued solutions under stronger assumptions on the triangulation. Results from numerical simulations of test examples are not within the scope of the paper.

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Cited in

(11)

• Maximum principles for vectorial approximate minimizers of nonconvex functionals
• Some discrete maximum principles arising for nonlinear elliptic finite element problems
• A property for the Monge-Ampère equation
• Discrete comparison principles for quasilinear elliptic PDE
• On the positivity of discrete harmonic functions and the discrete Harnack inequality for piecewise linear finite elements
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