In this paper, we construct and analyze finite element methods for the three dimensional Monge-Ampère equation. We derive methods using the Lagrange finite element space such that the resulting discrete linearizations are symmetric and stable. With this in hand, we then prove the well-posedness of the method, as well as derive quasi-optimal error estimates. We also present some numerical experiments that back up the theoretical findings.

We introduce a family of mixed discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element methods for nearly and perfectly incompressible linear elasticity. These mixed methods allow the choice of polynomials of any order k ≥ 1 for the approximation of the displacement field, and of order k or k − 1 for the pressure space, and are stable for any positive value of the stabilization parameter. We prove the optimal convergence of the displacement and stress fields in both cases, with error estimates that are independent of the value of the Poisson’s ratio. These estimates demonstrate that these methods are locking-free. To this end, we prove the corresponding inf-sup condition, which for the equal-order case, requires a construction to establish the surjectivity of the space of discrete divergences on the pressure space. In the particular case of near incompressibility and equal-order approximation of the displacement and pressure fields, the mixed method is equivalent to a displacement method proposed earlier by Lew et al. [Appel. Math. Res. express 3 (2004) 73–106]. The absence of locking of this displacement method then follows directly from that of the mixed method, including the uniform error estimate for the stress with respect to the Poisson’s ratio. We showcase the performance of these methods through numerical examples, which show that locking may appear if Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed strongly rather than weakly, as we do here.

In the present work we investigate the numerical simulation of liquid-vapor phase change in compressible flows. Each phase is modeled as a compressible fluid equipped with its own equation of state (EOS). We suppose that inter-phase equilibrium processes in the medium operate at a short time-scale compared to the other physical phenomena such as convection or thermal diffusion. This assumption provides an implicit definition of an equilibrium EOS for the two-phase medium. Within this framework, mass transfer is the result of local and instantaneous equilibria between both phases. The overall model is strictly hyperbolic. We examine properties of the equilibrium EOS and we propose a discretization strategy based on a finite-volume relaxation method. This method allows to cope with the implicit definition of the equilibrium EOS, even when the model involves complex EOS’s for the pure phases. We present two-dimensional numerical simulations that shows that the model is able to reproduce mechanism such as phase disappearance and nucleation.

The Hartree-Fock equation is widely accepted as the basic model of electronic structure calculation which serves as a canonical starting point for more sophisticated many-particle models. We have studied the s∗-compressibility for Galerkin discretizations of the Hartree-Fock equation in wavelet bases. Our focus is on the compression of Galerkin matrices from nuclear Coulomb potentials and nonlinear terms in the Fock operator which hitherto has not been discussed in the literature. It can be shown that the s∗-compressibility is in accordance with convergence rates obtained from best N-term approximation for solutions of the Hartree-Fock equation. This is a necessary requirement in order to achieve numerical solutions for these equations with optimal complexity using the recently developed adaptive wavelet algorithms of Cohen, Dahmen and DeVore.

The aim of this paper is to derive a general model for reduced viscous and resistive Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and to study its mathematical structure. The model is established for arbitrary density profiles in the poloidal section of the toroidal geometry of Tokamaks. The existence of global weak solutions, on the one hand, and the stability of the fundamental mode around initial data, on the other hand, are investigated.

We examine an elliptic optimal control problem with control and state constraints in ℝ3. An improved error estimate of 𝒪(hs) with 3/4 ≤ s ≤ 1 − ε is proven for a discretisation involving piecewise constant functions for the control and piecewise linear for the state. The derived order of convergence is illustrated by a numerical example.

We examine the composition of the L∞ norm with weakly convergent sequences of gradient fields associated with the homogenization of second order divergence form partial differential equations with measurable coefficients. Here the sequences of coefficients are chosen to model heterogeneous media and are piecewise constant and highly oscillatory. We identify local representation formulas that in the fine phase limit provide upper bounds on the limit superior of the L∞ norms of gradient fields. The local representation formulas are expressed in terms of the weak limit of the gradient fields and local corrector problems. The upper bounds may diverge according to the presence of rough interfaces. We also consider the fine phase limits for layered microstructures and for sufficiently smooth periodic microstructures. For these cases we are able to provide explicit local formulas for the limit of the L∞ norms of the associated sequence of gradient fields. Local representation formulas for lower bounds are obtained for fields corresponding to continuously graded periodic microstructures as well as for general sequences of oscillatory coefficients. The representation formulas are applied to problems of optimal material design.

We consider the symmetric FEM-BEM coupling for the numerical solution of a (nonlinear) interface problem for the 2D Laplacian. We introduce some new a posteriori error estimators based on the (h − h/2)-error estimation strategy. In particular, these include the approximation error for the boundary data, which allows to work with discrete boundary integral operators only. Using the concept of estimator reduction, we prove that the proposed adaptive algorithm is convergent in the sense that it drives the underlying error estimator to zero. Numerical experiments underline the reliability and efficiency of the considered adaptive mesh-refinement.

An abstract framework for constructing stable decompositions of the spaces corresponding to general symmetric positive definite problems into “local” subspaces and a global “coarse” space is developed. Particular applications of this abstract framework include practically important problems in porous media applications such as: the scalar elliptic (pressure) equation and the stream function formulation of its mixed form, Stokes’ and Brinkman’s equations. The constant in the corresponding abstract energy estimate is shown to be robust with respect to mesh parameters as well as the contrast, which is defined as the ratio of high and low values of the conductivity (or permeability). The derived stable decomposition allows to construct additive overlapping Schwarz iterative methods with condition numbers uniformly bounded with respect to the contrast and mesh parameters. The coarse spaces are obtained by patching together the eigenfunctions corresponding to the smallest eigenvalues of certain local problems. A detailed analysis of the abstract setting is provided. The proposed decomposition builds on a method of Galvis and Efendiev [Multiscale Model. Simul. 8 (2010) 1461–1483] developed for second order scalar elliptic problems with high contrast. Applications to the finite element discretizations of the second order elliptic problem in Galerkin and mixed formulation, the Stokes equations, and Brinkman’s problem are presented. A number of numerical experiments for these problems in two spatial dimensions are provided.

We consider the effect of surface roughness on solid-solid contact in a Stokes flow. Various models for the roughness are considered, and a unified methodology is given to derive the corresponding asymptotics of the drag force in the close-contact limit. In this way, we recover and clarify the various expressions that can be found in previous studies.

In this paper we study the temporal convergence of a locally implicit discontinuous Galerkin method for the time-domain Maxwell’s equations modeling electromagnetic waves propagation. Particularly, we wonder whether the method retains its second-order ordinary differential equation (ODE) convergence under stable simultaneous space-time grid refinement towards the true partial differential equation (PDE) solution. This is not a priori clear due to the component splitting which can introduce order reduction

In this paper we propose and analyze stable variational formulations for convection diffusion problems starting from concepts introduced by Sangalli. We derive efficient and reliable a posteriori error estimators that are based on these formulations. The analysis of resulting adaptive solution concepts, when specialized to the setting suggested by Sangalli’s work, reveals partly unexpected phenomena related to the specific nature of the norms induced by the variational formulation. Several remedies, based on other specifications, are explored and illustrated by numerical experiments.