A posteriori error estimates for nonconforming discretizations of singularly perturbed biharmonic operators

For the pure biharmonic equation and a biharmonic singular perturbation problem, a residual-based error estimator is introduced which applies to many existing nonconforming finite elements. The error estimator involves the local best-approximation error of the finite element function by piecewise polynomial functions of the degree determining the expected approximation order, which need not coincide with the maximal polynomial degree of the element, for example if bubble functions are used. The error estimator is shown to be reliable and locally efficient up to this polynomial best-approximation error and oscillations of the right-hand side

A Mixed Finite Element Method for Singularly Perturbed Fourth Oder Convection-Reaction-Diffusion Problems on Shishkin Mesh

This paper introduces an approach to decoupling singularly perturbed boundary value problems for fourth-order ordinary differential equations that feature a small positive parameter $\epsilon$ multiplying the highest derivative. We specifically examine Lidstone boundary conditions and demonstrate how to break down fourth-order differential equations into a system of second-order problems, with one lacking the parameter and the other featuring $\epsilon$ multiplying the highest derivative. To solve this system, we propose a mixed finite element algorithm and incorporate the Shishkin mesh scheme to capture the solution near boundary layers. Our solver is both direct and of high accuracy, with computation time that scales linearly with the number of grid points. We present numerical results to validate the theoretical results and the accuracy of our method.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Code generation for generally mapped finite elements

Many classical finite elements such as the Argyris and Bell elements have long been absent from high-level PDE software. Building on recent theoretical work, we describe how to implement very general finite-element transformations in FInAT and hence into the Firedrake finite-element system. Numerical results evaluate the new elements, comparing them to existing methods for classical problems. For a second-order model problem, we find that new elements give smooth solutions at a mild increase in cost over standard Lagrange elements. For fourth-order problems, however, the newly enabled methods significantly outperform interior penalty formulations. We also give some advanced use cases, solving the nonlinear Cahn-Hilliard equation and some biharmonic eigenvalue problems (including Chladni plates) using C1 discretizations

Computational Engineering

The focus of this Computational Engineering Workshop was on the mathematical foundation of state-of-the-art and emerging finite element methods in engineering analysis. The 52 participants included mathematicians and engineers with shared interest on discontinuous Galerkin or Petrov-Galerkin methods and other generalized nonconforming or mixed finite element methods