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

advection-diffusion conservation law bulk finite element cut cells elliptic and parabolic surface equations error analysis narrow band numerical result sharp interface unfitted finite elements

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,

G a m m a s u b s e t m a t h b b R^{n + 1}

, is embedded in a polyhedral domain in

m a t h b b R^{n + 1}

consisting of a union,

m a t h c a l T_{h}

, of

(n + 1)

-simplices. The finite element approximating space is based on continuous piece-wise linear finite element functions on

m a t h c a l 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,

G a m m a_{h}

, of

G a m m a

. 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.

Review text

The authors consider the finite element approximation of surface partial differential equations. They define new unfitted finite element methods for numerically approximating the exact solution using bulk finite elements. The key idea is that the \(n\)-dimensional hypersurface, \(\Gamma \subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\), is embedded in a polyhedral domain in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\), consisting of a union, \(\mathcal{T}_h\), of \((n+1)\)-simplices. The unifying feature of the methodological approach is that the finite element approximating space is based on continuous piecewise linear finite element functions on the bulk triangulation \(\mathcal{T}_h\) which is independent of \(\Gamma\). The first method is a sharp interface method (\textit{SIF}) which uses the bulk finite element space in an approximating weak formulation obtained from integration on a polygonal approximation, \(\Gamma_{h}\), of \(\Gamma\). The full gradient is used rather than the projected tangential gradient and it is this which distinguishes \textit{SIF} from some previous methods. The second method is a narrow band method (\textit{NBM}) in which the region of integration is a narrow band of width \(O(h)\). \textit{NBM} is similar to the method of \textit{K. Deckelnick} et al. [IMA J. Numer. Anal. 30, No. 2, 351--376 (2010; Zbl 1191.65151)], but again, the full gradient is used in the discrete weak formulation. An a priori error analysis is presented and it shows that the methods are of optimal order in the surface \(L^{2}\) and \(H^{1}\) norms. The 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. It is shown that the method is conservative so that it preserves mass in the case of an advection-diffusion conservation law. Some numerical results are presented to illustrate the rates of convergence.

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