Adaptive interior penalty methods for Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations with Cordes coefficients

In this paper we conduct a priori and a posteriori error analysis of the C0 interior penalty method for Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations, with coefficients that satisfy the Cordes condition. These estimates show the quasi-optimality of the method, and provide one with an adaptive finite element method. In accordance with the proven regularity theory, we only assume that the solution of the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation belongs to H2

Convergent finite difference methods for one-dimensional fully nonlinear second order partial differential equations

This paper develops a new framework for designing and analyzing convergent finite difference methods for approximating both classical and viscosity solutions of second order fully nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) in 1-D. The goal of the paper is to extend the successful framework of monotone, consistent, and stable finite difference methods for first order fully nonlinear Hamilton–Jacobi equations to second order fully nonlinear PDEs such as Monge–Ampère and Bellman type equations. New concepts of consistency, generalized monotonicity, and stability are introduced; among them, the generalized monotonicity and consistency, which are easier to verify in practice, are natural extensions of the corresponding notions of finite difference methods for first order fully nonlinear Hamilton–Jacobi equations. The main component of the proposed framework is the concept of a “numerical operator”, and the main idea used to design consistent, generalized monotone and stable finite difference methods is the concept of a “numerical moment”. These two new concepts play the same roles the “numerical Hamiltonian” and the “numerical viscosity” play in the finite difference framework for first order fully nonlinear Hamilton–Jacobi equations. In the paper, two classes of consistent and monotone finite difference methods are proposed for second order fully nonlinear PDEs. The first class contains Lax–Friedrichs-like methods which also are proved to be stable, and the second class contains Godunov-like methods. Numerical results are also presented to gauge the performance of the proposed finite difference methods and to validate the theoretical results of the paper

Mixed Interior Penalty Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Fully Nonlinear Second Order Elliptic and Parabolic Equations in High Dimensions

This article is concerned with developing efficient discontinuous Galerkin methods for approximating viscosity (and classical) solutions of fully nonlinear second-order elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) including the Monge–Ampère equation and the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation. A general framework for constructing interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin (IP-DG) methods for these PDEs is presented. The key idea is to introduce multiple discrete Hessians for the viscosity solution as a means to characterize the behavior of the function. The PDE is rewritten in a mixed form composed of a single nonlinear equation paired with a system of linear equations that defines multiple Hessian approximations. To form the single nonlinear equation, the nonlinear PDE operator is replaced by the projection of a numerical operator into the discontinuous Galerkin test space. The numerical operator uses the multiple Hessian approximations to form a numerical moment which fulfills consistency and g-monotonicity requirements of the framework. The numerical moment will be used to design solvers that will be shown to help the IP-DG methods select the “correct” solution that corresponds to the unique viscosity solution. Numerical experiments are also presented to gauge the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed mixed IP-DG methods

Local Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for One-Dimensional Second Order Fully Nonlinear Elliptic and Parabolic Equations

This paper is concerned with developing accurate and efficient nonstandard discontinuous Galerkin methods for fully nonlinear second order elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) in the case of one spatial dimension. The primary goal of the paper to develop a general framework for constructing high order local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) methods for approximating viscosity solutions of these fully nonlinear PDEs which are merely continuous functions by definition. In order to capture discontinuities of the first order derivative ux of the solution u, two independent functions q- and q+ are introduced to approximate one-sided derivatives of u. Similarly, to capture the discontinuities of the second order derivative uxx, four independent functions p--,p-+,p+-, and p++ are used to approximate one-sided derivatives of q- and q+. The proposed LDG framework, which is based on a nonstandard mixed formulation of the underlying PDE, embeds a given fully nonlinear problem into a mostly linear system of equations where the given nonlinear differential operator must be replaced by a numerical operator which allows multiple value inputs of the first and second order derivatives ux and uxx. An easy to verify set of criteria for constructing “good” numerical operators is also proposed. It consists of consistency and generalized monotonicity. To ensure such a generalized monotonicity property, the crux of the construction is to introduce the numerical moment in the numerical operator, which plays a critical role in the proposed LDG framework. The generalized monotonicity gives the LDG methods the ability to select the viscosity solution among all possible solutions. The proposed framework extends a companion finite difference framework developed by Feng and Lewis (J Comp Appl Math 254:81–98, 2013) and allows for the approximation of fully nonlinear PDEs using high order polynomials and non-uniform meshes. Numerical experiments are also presented to demonstrate the accuracy, efficiency and utility of the proposed LDG methods

Eigenvalue problems for fully nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations with transport boundary conditions

Fully nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) arise in a number of applications. From mathematical finance to astrophysics, there is a great deal of interest in solving them. Eigenvalue problems for fully nonlinear PDEs with transport boundary conditions are of particular interest as alternative formulations of PDEs that require data to satisfy a solvability condition, which may not be known explicitly or may be polluted by noisy data. Nevertheless, these have not yet been well-explored in the literature. In this dissertation, a convergence framework for numerically solving eigenvalue problems for fully nonlinear PDEs is introduced. In addition, existing two-dimensional methods for nonlinear equations are extended to handle transport boundary conditions and eigenvalue problems. Finally, new techniques are designed to enable appropriate discretization of a large range of fully nonlinear three-dimensional equations

Multi-scale hydro-morphodynamic modelling using mesh movement methods

Abstract: Hydro-morphodynamic modelling is an important tool that can be used in the protection of coastal zones. The models can be required to resolve spatial scales ranging from sub-metre to hundreds of kilometres and are computationally expensive. In this work, we apply mesh movement methods to a depth-averaged hydro-morphodynamic model for the first time, in order to tackle both these issues. Mesh movement methods are particularly well-suited to coastal problems as they allow the mesh to move in response to evolving flow and morphology structures. This new capability is demonstrated using test cases that exhibit complex evolving bathymetries and have moving wet-dry interfaces. In order to be able to simulate sediment transport in wet-dry domains, a new conservative discretisation approach has been developed as part of this work, as well as a sediment slide mechanism. For all test cases, we demonstrate how mesh movement methods can be used to reduce discretisation error and computational cost. We also show that the optimum parameter choices in the mesh movement monitor functions are fairly predictable based upon the physical characteristics of the test case, facilitating the use of mesh movement methods on further problems