In this paper we study a model problem describing the movement of a glacier under Glen's flow law and investigated by Colinge and Rappaz [Colinge and Rappaz, ESAIM: M2AN33 (1999) 395–406]. We establish error estimates for finite element approximation using the results of Chow [Chow, SIAM J. Numer. Analysis29 (1992) 769–780] and Liu and Barrett [Liu and Barrett, SIAM J. Numer. Analysis33 (1996) 98–106] and give an analysis of the convergence of the successive approximations used in [Colinge and Rappaz, ESAIM: M2AN33 (1999) 395–406]. Supporting numerical convergence studies are carried out and we also demonstrate the numerical performance of an a posteriori error estimator in adaptive mesh refinement computation of the problem.

The incompressible Navier-Stokes problem is discretized in time by the two-step backward differentiation formula. Error estimates are proved under feasible assumptions on the regularity of the exact solution avoiding hardly fulfillable compatibility conditions. Whereas the time-weighted velocity error is of optimal second order, the time-weighted error in the pressure is of first order. Suboptimal estimates are shown for a linearisation. The results cover both the two- and three-dimensional case.

In this paper we present two-level overlapping domain decomposition preconditioners for the finite-element discretisation of elliptic problems in two and three dimensions. The computational domain is partitioned into overlapping subdomains, and a coarse space correction is added. We present an algebraic way to define the coarse space, based on the concept of aggregation. This employs a (smoothed) aggregation technique and does not require the introduction of a coarse grid. We consider a set of assumptions on the coarse basis functions, to ensure bound for the resulting preconditioned system. These assumptions only involve geometrical quantities associated to the aggregates, namely their diameter and the overlap. A condition number which depends on the product of the relative overlap among the subdomains and the relative overlap among the aggregates is proved. Numerical experiments on a model problem are reported to illustrate the performance of the proposed preconditioners.

We analyze a new formulation of the Stokes equations in three-dimensional axisymmetric geometries, relying on Fourier expansion with respect to the angular variable: the problem for each Fourier coefficient is two-dimensional and has six scalar unknowns, corresponding to the vector potential and the vorticity. A spectral discretization is built on this formulation, which leads to an exactly divergence-free discrete velocity. We prove optimal error estimates.

A linearly convergent iterative algorithm that approximates the rank-1 convex envelope $f^{rc}$ of a given function $f:\mathbb{R}^{n\times m} \to \mathbb{R}$, i.e. the largest function below f which is convex along all rank-1 lines, is established. The proposed algorithm is a modified version of an approximation scheme due to Dolzmann and Walkington.

This paper is concerned with the numerical approximations of Cauchy problems for one-dimensional nonconservative hyperbolic systems. The first goal is to introduce a general concept of well-balancing for numerical schemes solving this kind of systems. Once this concept stated, we investigate the well-balance properties of numerical schemes based on the generalized Roe linearizations introduced by [Toumi, J. Comp. Phys.102 (1992) 360–373]. Next, this general theory is applied to obtain well-balanced schemes for solving coupled systems of conservation laws with source terms. Finally, we focus on applications to shallow water systems: the numerical schemes obtained and their properties are compared, in the case of one layer flows, with those introduced by [Bermúdez and Vázquez-Cendón, Comput. Fluids23 (1994) 1049–1071]; in the case of two layer flows, they are compared with the numerical scheme presented by [Castro, Macías and Parés, ESAIM: M2AN35 (2001) 107–127].

In the reliability theory, the availability of a component, characterized by non constant failure and repair rates, is obtained, at a given time, thanks to the computation of the marginal distributions of a semi-Markov process. These measures are shown to satisfy classical transport equations, the approximation of which can be done thanks to a finite volume method. Within a uniqueness result for the continuous solution, the convergence of the numerical scheme is then proven in the weak measure sense, and some numerical applications, which show the efficiency and the accuracy of the method, are given.

In this paper, we derive and analyze a Reissner-Mindlin-like model for isotropic heterogeneous linearly elastic plates. The modeling procedure is based on a Hellinger-Reissner principle, which we modify to derive consistent models. Due to the material heterogeneity, the classical polynomial profiles for the plate shear stress are replaced by more sophisticated choices, that are asymptotically correct. In the homogeneous case we recover a Reissner-Mindlin model with 5/6 as shear correction factor. Asymptotic expansions are used to estimate the modeling error. We remark that our derivation is not based on asymptotic arguments only. Thus, the model obtained is more sophisticated (and accurate) than simply taking the asymptotic limit of the three dimensional problem. Moreover, we do not assume periodicity of the heterogeneities.