Pointwise best approximation results for Galerkin finite element solutions of parabolic problems

In this paper we establish a best approximation property of fully discrete Galerkin finite element solutions of second order parabolic problems on convex polygonal and polyhedral domains in the $L^\infty$ norm. The discretization method uses of continuous Lagrange finite elements in space and discontinuous Galerkin methods in time of an arbitrary order. The method of proof differs from the established fully discrete error estimate techniques and for the first time allows to obtain such results in three space dimensions. It uses elliptic results, discrete resolvent estimates in weighted norms, and the discrete maximal parabolic regularity for discontinuous Galerkin methods established by the authors in [16]. In addition, the proof does not require any relationship between spatial mesh sizes and time steps. We also establish a local best approximation property that shows a more local behavior of the error at a given point

Energy-corrected FEM and explicit time-stepping for parabolic problems

The presence of corners in the computational domain, in general, reduces the regularity of solutions of parabolic problems and diminishes the convergence properties of the finite element approximation introducing a so-called "pollution effect". Standard remedies based on mesh refinement around the singular corner result in very restrictive stability requirements on the time-step size when explicit time integration is applied. In this article, we introduce and analyse the energy-corrected finite element method for parabolic problems, which works on quasi-uniform meshes, and, based on it, create fast explicit time discretisation. We illustrate these results with extensive numerical investigations not only confirming the theoretical results but also showing the flexibility of the method, which can be applied in the presence of multiple singular corners and a three-dimensional setting. We also propose a fast explicit time-stepping scheme based on a piecewise cubic energy-corrected discretisation in space completed with mass-lumping techniques and numerically verify its efficiency

Finite Element Methods for Fourth Order Variational Inequalities

In this work we study finite element methods for fourth order variational inequalities. We begin with two model problems that lead to fourth order obstacle problems and a brief survey of finite element methods for these problems. Then we review the fundamental results including Sobolev spaces, existence and uniqueness results of variational inequalities, regularity results for biharmonic problems and fourth order obstacle problems, and finite element methods for the biharmonic problem. In Chapter 2 we also include three types of enriching operators which are useful in the convergence analysis. In Chapter 3 we study finite element methods for the displacement obstacle problem of clamped Kirchhoff plates. A unified convergence analysis is provided for $C^1$ finite element methods, classical nonconforming finite element methods and $C^0$ interior penalty methods. The key ingredient in the error analysis is the introduction of the auxiliary obstacle problem. An optimal $O(h)$ error estimate in the energy norm is obtained for convex domains. We also address the approximations of the coincidence set and the free boundary. In Chapter 4 we study a Morley finite element method and a quadratic $C^0$ interior penalty method for the displacement obstacle problem of clamped Kirchhoff plates with general Dirichlet boundary conditions on general polygonal domains. We prove the magnitudes of the errors in the energy norm and the $L^{\infty}$ norm are $O(h^{\alpha})$, where $\alpha \u3e 1/2$ is determined by the interior angles of the polygonal domain. Numerical results are also presented to illustrate the performance of the methods and verify the theoretical results obtained in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. In Chapter 5 we consider an elliptic optimal control problem with state constraints. By formulating the problem as a fourth order obstacle problem with the boundary condition of simply supported plates, we study a quadratic $C^0$ interior penalty method and derive the error estimates in the energy norm based on the framework we introduced in Chapter 3. The rate of convergence is derived for both quasi-uniform meshes and graded meshes. Numerical results presented in this chapter confirm our theoretical results