Unfitted finite element methods using bulk meshes for surface partial differential equations

DOI10.1137/130948641MaRDI QIDQ2927849zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Charles M. Elliott, Thomas Ranner, Klaus Deckelnick

Publication date 4 November 2014

Published in SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.2905

zbMATH Keywords

error analysisnumerical resultcut cellssharp interfaceunfitted finite elementsnarrow bandadvection-diffusion conservation lawbulk finite elementelliptic and parabolic surface equations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

PDEs on manifolds (35R01) Elliptic equations on manifolds, general theory (58J05) Heat and other parabolic equation methods for PDEs on manifolds (58J35) Error bounds for initial value and initial-boundary value problems involving PDEs (65M15) Finite element, Rayleigh-Ritz and Galerkin methods for initial value and initial-boundary value problems involving PDEs (65M60) Error bounds for boundary value problems involving PDEs (65N15) Finite element, Rayleigh-Ritz and Galerkin methods for boundary value problems involving PDEs (65N30)

Abstract: In this paper, we define new unfitted finite element methods for numerically approximating the solution of surface partial differential equations using bulk finite elements. The key idea is that the $n$-dimensional hypersurface, $Gammasubsetmathbb{R}^{n+1}$, is embedded in a polyhedral domain in $mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ consisting of a union, $mathcal{T}_h$, of $(n+1)$-simplices. The finite element approximating space is based on continuous piece-wise linear finite element functions on $mathcal{T}_h$. Our first method is a sharp interface method, emph{SIF}, which uses the bulk finite element space in an approximating weak formulation obtained from integration on a polygonal approximation, $Gamm{a}_h$, of $Gamma$. The full gradient is used rather than the projected tangential gradient and it is this which distinguishes emph{SIF} from the method of [42]. The second method, emph{NBM}, is a narrow band method in which the region of integration is a narrow band of width $O(h)$. emph{NBM} is similar to the method of [13]. but again the full gradient is used in the discrete weak formulation. The a priori error analysis in this paper shows that the methods are of optimal order in the surface $L^2$ and $H^1$ norms and have the advantage that the normal derivative of the discrete solution is small and converges to zero. Our third method combines bulk finite elements, discrete sharp interfaces and narrow bands in order to give an unfitted finite element method for parabolic equations on evolving surfaces. We show that our method is conservative so that it preserves mass in the case of an advection diffusion conservation law. Numerical results are given which illustrate the rates of convergence.

Recommendations

• Finite element methods for surface PDEs
• A narrow-band unfitted finite element method for elliptic PDEs posed on surfaces
• An h-narrow band finite-element method for elliptic equations on implicit surfaces
• Trace finite element methods for PDEs on surfaces
• Finite elements on evolving surfaces

Cited in

(34)

• A trace finite element method for PDEs on evolving surfaces
• A High-Order Surface Finite Element Method Based on Intersections with Background Tetrahedral Meshes
• An unfitted finite element method for the Darcy problem in a fracture network
• Kernel-based collocation methods for heat transport on evolving surfaces
• Mini-workshop: PDE models of motility and invasion in active biosystems. Abstracts from the mini-workshop held October 22--28, 2017
• \(L^2\)-error analysis of an Isoparametric unfitted finite element method for elliptic interface problems
• Bulk-surface virtual element method for systems of PDEs in two-space dimensions
• Analysis of a high-order trace finite element method for PDEs on level set surfaces
• A stabilized trace finite element method for partial differential equations on evolving surfaces
• A narrow-band unfitted finite element method for elliptic PDEs posed on surfaces
• On the simultaneous solution of structural membranes on all level sets within a bulk domain
• An unfitted dG scheme for coupled bulk-surface PDEs on complex geometries
• Simultaneous analysis of continuously embedded Reissner-Mindlin shells in 3D bulk domains
• Full gradient stabilized cut finite element methods for surface partial differential equations
• A trace finite element method for a class of coupled bulk-interface transport problems
• An adaptive octree finite element method for PDEs posed on surfaces
• Optimizing convergence: GMRES preconditioner for Darcy flow problem in a fracture network
• Higher-order meshing of implicit geometries. II: Approximations on manifolds
• Unfitted extended finite elements for composite grids
• Approximation of the Spectral Fractional Powers of the Laplace-Beltrami Operator
• Minimal surface computation using a finite element method on an embedded surface
• Turing patterns in a 3D morpho-chemical bulk-surface reaction-diffusion system for battery modeling
• Numerical investigations on trace finite element methods for the Laplace-Beltrami eigenvalue problem
• Stability and error analysis for a diffuse interface approach to an advection-diffusion equation on a moving surface
• Inf-sup stability of geometrically unfitted Stokes finite elements
• Unfitted Trefftz discontinuous Galerkin methods for elliptic boundary value problems
• A cut finite element method for two-phase flows with insoluble surfactants
• A convergent evolving finite element method with artificial tangential motion for surface evolution under a prescribed velocity field
• Volumetric variational principles for a class of partial differential equations defined on surfaces and curves
• Geometrically unfitted finite element methods and applications. Proceedings of the UCL workshop, London, UK, January, 6--8, 2016
• Using high-order transport theorems for implicitly defined moving curves to perform quadrature on planar domains
• A cut finite element method for coupled bulk-surface problems on time-dependent domains
• Error estimates of augmented compact FVM for nonlinear singular parabolic problems with degenerate interface
• High order unfitted finite element methods for interface problems and PDEs on surfaces

Describes a project that uses

Uses Software

• TetGen

This page was built for publication: Unfitted finite element methods using bulk meshes for surface partial differential equations

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2927849)