Solving the incompressible surface Navier-Stokes equation by surface finite elements

We consider a numerical approach for the incompressible surface Navier-Stokes equation on surfaces with arbitrary genus $g(\mathcal{S})$. The approach is based on a reformulation of the equation in Cartesian coordinates of the embedding $\mathbb{R}^3$, penalization of the normal component, a Chorin projection method and discretization in space by surface finite elements for each component. The approach thus requires only standard ingredients which most finite element implementations can offer. We compare computational results with discrete exterior calculus (DEC) simulations on a torus and demonstrate the interplay of the flow field with the topology by showing realizations of the Poincar\'e-Hopf theorem on $n$-tori

A finite element approach for vector- and tensor-valued surface PDEs

We derive a Cartesian componentwise description of the covariant derivative of tangential tensor fields of any degree on general manifolds. This allows to reformulate any vector- and tensor-valued surface PDE in a form suitable to be solved by established tools for scalar-valued surface PDEs. We consider piecewise linear Lagrange surface finite elements on triangulated surfaces and validate the approach by a vector- and a tensor-valued surface Helmholtz problem on an ellipsoid. We experimentally show optimal (linear) order of convergence for these problems. The full functionality is demonstrated by solving a surface Landau-de Gennes problem on the Stanford bunny. All tools required to apply this approach to other vector- and tensor-valued surface PDEs are provided

Hydrodynamic interactions in polar liquid crystals on evolving surfaces

We consider the derivation and numerical solution of the flow of passive and active polar liquid crystals, whose molecular orientation is subjected to a tangential anchoring on an evolving curved surface. The underlying passive model is a simplified surface Ericksen-Leslie model, which is derived as a thin-film limit of the corresponding three-dimensional equations with appropriate boundary conditions. A finite element discretization is considered and the effect of hydrodynamics on the interplay of topology, geometric properties and defect dynamics is studied for this model on various stationary and evolving surfaces. Additionally, we consider an active model. We propose a surface formulation for an active polar viscous gel and exemplarily demonstrate the effect of the underlying curvature on the location of topological defects on a torus

Intrinsic FEM for Vector Laplacian equations

In questa tesi studiamo la natura delle diverse forme di Laplaciani vettoriali mostrando un caso della sua derivazione da un'energia associata a un modello di cristallo liquido nematico. In particolare studieremo come si sviluppano i Laplaciani di Hodge o di Bochner e come sono correlati attraverso l'identità di Weitzenböck. Poi si studia la discretizzazione di questi ultimi per mezzo dell'ISFEM (metodo intrinseco degli elementi finiti), estendendo quest'ultimo al caso vettoriale e utilizzando i blocchi di costruzione sviluppati per il caso scalare. Infine, alcuni esempi su superfici semplici saranno risolti numericamente per testare la precisione e l'efficienza dell'estensione proposta dell'ISFEM scalare al Laplaciano vettoriale.In this thesis we study the nature of the different vector Laplacian forms by showing a case of its derivation from an energy associated to a nematic liquid crystal model. In particular we will study how the Hodge or the Bochner Laplacians develop and are related through Weitzenböck identity. Then we study the discretization of the latter by means of the ISFEM (intrinsic finite element method), by extending the latter to the vector case and using the building blocks developed for the scalar case. Finally, a few examples on simple surfaces will be numerically solved to test the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed extension of scalar ISFEM to the vector Laplacian

Level set methods for higher order evolution laws

A numerical treatment of non-linear higher-order geometric evolution equations with the level set and the finite element method is presented. The isotropic, weak anisotropic and strong anisotropic situation is discussed. Most of the equations considered in this work arise from the field of thin film growth. A short introduction to the subject is given. Four different models are discussed: mean curvature flow, surface diffusion, a kinetic model, which combines the effects of mean curvature flow and surface diffusion and includes a further kinetic component, and an adatom model, which incorporates in addition free adatoms. As an introduction to the numerical schemes, first the isotropic and weak anisotropic situation is considered. Then strong anisotropies (non-convex anisotropies) are used to simulate the phenomena of faceting and coarsening. The experimentally observed effect of corner and edge roundings is reached in the simulation through the regularization of the strong anisotropy with a higher-order curvature term. The curvature regularization leads to an increase by two in the order of the equations, which results in highly non-linear equations of up to 6th order. For the numerical solution, the equations are transformed into systems of second order equations, which are solved with a Schur complement approach. The adatom model constitutes a diffusion equation on a moving surface. An operator splitting approach is used for the numerical solution. In difference to other works, which restrict to the isotropic situation, also the anisotropic situation is discussed and solved numerically. Furthermore, a treatment of geometric evolution equations on implicitly given curved surfaces with the level set method is given. In particular, the numerical solution of surface diffusion on curved surfaces is presented. The equations are discretized in space by standard linear finite elements. For the time discretization a semi-implicit discretization scheme is employed. The derivation of the numerical schemes is presented in detail, and numerous computational results are given for the 2D and 3D situation. To keep computational costs low, the finite element grid is adaptively refined near the moving curves and surfaces resp. A redistancing algorithm based on a local Hopf-Lax formula is used. The algorithm has been extended by the authors to the 3D case. A detailed description of the algorithm in 3D is presented in this work.In der Arbeit geht es um die numerische Behandlung nicht-linearer geometrischer Evolutionsgleichungen höherer Ordnung mit Levelset- und Finite-Elemente-Verfahren. Der isotrope, schwach anisotrope und stark anisotrope Fall wird diskutiert. Die meisten in dieser Arbeit betrachteten Gleichungen entstammen dem Gebiet des Dünnschicht-Wachstums. Eine kurze Einführung in dieses Gebiet wird gegeben. Es werden vier verschiedene Modelle diskutiert: mittlerer Krümmungsfluss, Oberflächendiffusion, ein kinetisches Modell, welches die Effekte des mittleren Krümmungsflusses und der Oberflächendiffusion kombiniert und zusätzlich eine kinetische Komponente beinhaltet, und ein Adatom-Modell, welches außerdem freie Adatome berücksichtigt. Als Einführung in die numerischen Schemata, wird zuerst der isotrope und schwach anisotrope Fall betrachtet. Anschließend werden starke Anisotropien (nicht-konvexe Anisotropien) benutzt, um Facettierungs- und Vergröberungsphänomene zu simulieren. Der in Experimenten beobachtete Effekt der Ecken- und Kanten-Abrundung wird in der Simulation durch die Regularisierung der starken Anisotropie durch einen Krümmungsterm höherer Ordnung erreicht. Die Krümmungsregularisierung führt zu einer Erhöhung der Ordnung der Gleichung um zwei, was hochgradig nicht-lineare Gleichungen von bis zu sechster Ordnung ergibt. Für die numerische Lösung werden die Gleichungen auf Systeme zweiter Ordnungsgleichungen transformiert, welche mit einem Schurkomplement-Ansatz gelöst werden. Das Adatom-Modell bildet eine Diffusionsgleichung auf einer bewegten Fläche. Zur numerischen Lösung wird ein Operatorsplitting-Ansatz verwendet. Im Unterschied zu anderen Arbeiten, die sich auf den isotropen Fall beschränken, wird auch der anisotrope Fall diskutiert und numerisch gelöst. Außerdem werden geometrische Evolutionsgleichungen auf implizit gegebenen gekrümmten Flächen mit Levelset-Verfahren behandelt. Insbesondere wird die numerische Lösung von Oberflächendiffusion auf gekrümmten Flächen dargestellt. Die Gleichungen werden im Ort mit linearen Standard-Finiten-Elementen diskretisiert. Als Zeitdiskretisierung wird ein semi-implizites Diskretisierungsschema verwendet. Die Herleitung der numerischen Schemata wird detailliert dargestellt, und zahlreiche numerische Ergebnisse für den 2D und 3D Fall sind gegeben. Um den Rechenaufwand gering zu halten, wird das Finite-Elemente-Gitter adaptiv an den bewegten Kurven bzw. den bewegten Flächen verfeinert. Es wird ein Redistancing-Algorithmus basierend auf einer lokalen Hopf-Lax Formel benutzt. Der Algorithmus wurde von den Autoren auf den 3D Fall erweitert. In dieser Arbeit wird der Algorithmus für den 3D Fall detailliert beschrieben

Adaptive Finite Elements for Systems of PDEs: Software Concepts, Multi-level Techniques and Parallelization

In the recent past, the field of scientific computing has become of more and more importance for scientific as well as for industrial research, playing a comparable role as experiment and theory do. This success of computational methods in scientific and engineering research is next to the enormous improvement of computer hardware to a large extend due to contributions from applied mathematicians, who have developed algorithms which make real life applications feasible. Examples are adaptive methods, high order discretization, fast linear and non-linear solvers and multi-level methods. The application of these methods in a large class of problems demands for suitable and robust tools for a flexible and efficient implementation. In order to play a crucial role in scientific and engineering research, besides efficiency in the numerical solution, also efficiency in problem setup and interpretation of simulation results is of utmost importance. As modeling and computing comes closer together, efficient computational methods need to be applied to new sets of equations. The problems to be addressed by simulation methods become more and more complicated, ranging over different scales, interacting on different dimensions and combining different physics. Such problems need to be implemented in a short period of time, solved on complicated domains and visualized with respect to the demand of the user. %Only a modular abstract simulation environment will fulfill these requirements and allow to setup, solve and visualize real-world problems appropriately. In this work, the concepts and the design of the C++ finite element toolbox AMDiS (adaptive multidimensional simulations) are described. It is shown, how abstract data structures and modern software concepts can help to design user-friendly finite element software, which provides large flexibility in problem definition while on the other hand efficiently solves these problems. Also systems of coupled problems can be solved in an intuitive way. In order to demonstrate its possibilities, AMDiS has been applied to several non-standard problems. The most time-consuming part in most simulations is the solution of linear systems of equations. Multi-level methods use discretization hierarchies to solve these systems in a very efficient way. In AMDiS, such multi-level techniques are implemented in the context of adaptive finite elements. Several numerical results are given which compare this multigrid solver with classical iterative methods. Besides the development of more efficient algorithms also the growing hardware capabilities lead to an improvement of simulation possibilities. Modern computing clusters contain more and more processors and also personal computers today are often equipped with multi-core processors. In this work, a new parallelization approach has been developed which allows the parallelization of sequential code in a very easy way and reduces the communication overhead compared to classical parallelization concepts