Higher order numerical methods for singular perturbation problems

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDIn recent years, there has been a great interest towards the higher order numerical methods for singularly perturbed problems. As compared to their lower order counterparts, they provide better accuracy with fewer mesh points. Construction and/or implementation of direct higher order methods is usually very complicated. Thus a natural choice is to use some convergence acceleration techniques, e.g., Richardson extrapolation, defect correction, etc. In this thesis, we will consider various classes of problems described by singularly perturbed ordinary and partial differential equations. For these problems, we design some novel numerical methods and attempt to increase their accuracy as well as the order of convergence. We also do the same for existing numerical methods in some instances. We find that, even though the Richardson extrapolation technique always improves the accuracy, it does not perform equally well when applied to different methods for certain classes of problems. Moreover, while in some cases it improves the order of convergence, in other cases it does not. These issues are discussed in this thesis for linear and nonlinear singularly perturbed ODEs as well as PDEs. Extrapolation techniques are analyzed thoroughly in all the cases, whereas the limitations of the defect correction approach for certain problems is indicated at the end of the thesis.South Afric

Robust computational methods for two-parameter singular perturbation problems

Magister Scientiae - MScThis thesis is concerned with singularly perturbed two-parameter problems. We study a tted nite difference method as applied on two different meshes namely a piecewise mesh (of Shishkin type) and a graded mesh (of Bakhvalov type) as well as a tted operator nite di erence method. We notice that results on Bakhvalov mesh are better than those on Shishkin mesh. However, piecewise uniform meshes provide a simpler platform for analysis and computations. Fitted operator methods are even simpler in these regards due to the ease of operating on uniform meshes. Richardson extrapolation is applied on one of the tted mesh nite di erence method (those based on Shishkin mesh) as well as on the tted operator nite di erence method in order to improve the accuracy and/or the order of convergence. This is our main contribution to this eld and in fact we have achieved very good results after extrapolation on the tted operator finitete difference method. Extensive numerical computations are carried out on to confirm the theoretical results.South Afric

Layer-adapted meshes for convection-diffusion problems

This is a book on numerical methods for singular perturbation problems - in particular stationary convection-dominated convection-diffusion problems. More precisely it is devoted to the construction and analysis of layer-adapted meshes underlying these numerical methods. An early important contribution towards the optimization of numerical methods by means of special meshes was made by N.S. Bakhvalov in 1969. His paper spawned a lively discussion in the literature with a number of further meshes being proposed and applied to various singular perturbation problems. However, in the mid 1980s this development stalled, but was enlivend again by G.I. Shishkin's proposal of piecewise- equidistant meshes in the early 1990s. Because of their very simple structure they are often much easier to analyse than other meshes, although they give numerical approximations that are inferior to solutions on competing meshes. Shishkin meshes for numerous problems and numerical methods have been studied since and they are still very much in vogue. With this contribution we try to counter this development and lay the emphasis on more general meshes that - apart from performing better than piecewise-uniform meshes - provide a much deeper insight in the course of their analysis. In this monograph a classification and a survey are given of layer-adapted meshes for convection-diffusion problems. It tries to give a comprehensive review of state-of-the art techniques used in the convergence analysis for various numerical methods: finite differences, finite elements and finite volumes. While for finite difference schemes applied to one-dimensional problems a rather complete convergence theory for arbitrary meshes is developed, the theory is more fragmentary for other methods and problems and still requires the restriction to certain classes of meshes

On the design and implementation of a hybrid numerical method for singularly perturbed two-point boundary value problems

>Magister Scientiae - MScWith the development of technology seen in the last few decades, numerous solvers have been developed to provide adequate solutions to the problems that model different aspects of science and engineering. Quite often, these solvers are tailor-made for specific classes of problems. Therefore, more of such must be developed to accompany the growing need for mathematical models that help in the understanding of the contemporary world. This thesis treats two point boundary value singularly perturbed problems. The solution to this type of problem undergoes steep changes in narrow regions (called boundary or internal layer regions) thus rendering the classical numerical procedures inappropriate. To this end, robust numerical methods such as finite difference methods, in particular fitted mesh and fitted operator methods have extensively been used. While the former consists of transforming the continuous problem into a discrete one on a non-uniform mesh, the latter involves a special discretisation of the problem on a uniform mesh and are known to be more accurate. Both classes of methods are suitably designed to accommodate the rapid change(s) in the solution. Quite often, finite difference methods on piece-wise uniform meshes (of Shishkin-type) are adopted. However, methods based on such non-uniform meshes, though layer-resolving, are not easily extendable to higher dimensions. This work aims at investigating the possibility of capitalising on the advantages of both fitted mesh and fitted operator methods. Theoretical results are confirmed by extensive numerical simulations

Multi-Level Adaptive Techniques (MLAT) for singular-perturbation problems

The multilevel (multigrid) adaptive technique, a general strategy of solving continuous problems by cycling between coarser and finer levels of discretization is described. It provides very fast general solvers, together with adaptive, nearly optimal discretization schemes. In the process, boundary layers are automatically either resolved or skipped, depending on a control function which expresses the computational goal. The global error decreases exponentially as a function of the overall computational work, in a uniform rate independent of the magnitude of the singular-perturbation terms. The key is high-order uniformly stable difference equations, and uniformly smoothing relaxation schemes

On the method of lines for singularly perturbed partial differential equations

Magister Scientiae - MScMany chemical and physical problems are mathematically described by partial differential equations (PDEs). These PDEs are often highly nonlinear and therefore have no closed form solutions. Thus, it is necessary to recourse to numerical approaches to determine suitable approximations to the solution of such equations. For solutions possessing sharp spatial transitions (such as boundary or interior layers), standard numerical methods have shown limitations as they fail to capture large gradients. The method of lines (MOL) is one of the numerical methods used to solve PDEs. It proceeds by the discretization of all but one dimension leading to systems of ordinary di erential equations. In the case of time-dependent PDEs, the MOL consists of discretizing the spatial derivatives only leaving the time variable continuous. The process results in a system to which a numerical method for initial value problems can be applied. In this project we consider various types of singularly perturbed time-dependent PDEs. For each type, using the MOL, the spatial dimensions will be discretized in many different ways following fitted numerical approaches. Each discretisation will be analysed for stability and convergence. Extensive experiments will be conducted to confirm the analyses

Finite difference methods for singularly perturbed problems on non-rectangular domains

Singularly perturbed problems arise in many branches of science and are characterised mathematically by the presence of a small parameter m u ltip ly in g one or more of the highest derivatives in a differential equation. This thesis concerns singularly perturbed problems posed on non-rectangular domains. The methodology used is to perform a co-ordinate transformation to pose the problem on a rectangular domain and to then study the transformed problem. We first consider a class of parabolic problems. We classify the problems in the transformed problem class according to the nature and location of the layers present in th e ir solution. This classification then enables us to design numerical methods specific to each class of problems. Known theoretical results are stated for the convergence of some of the methods. We then examine in detail one particular method. Under certain assumptions it is shown that the numerical solutions generated by the method converge uniformly with respect to the singularly perturb ed parameter. Detailed numerical results are then presented which verify the theoretical results. The next class of problems considered is a class of elliptic problems. In this case the transformed differential equation contains a new term and the situation is thus more complex. For this reason we consider only the case when regular layers are present. An appropriate numerical method is constructed and under various assumptions it is proved th a t the numerical solutions converge uniformly, in the perturbed case, i.e., when the singularly perturbed parameter is small. This is the central result of the thesis. Extensive numerical computations are presented which verify the theoretical result

HIGH ACCURACY METHODS AND REGULARIZATION TECHNIQUES FOR FLUID FLOWS AND FLUID-FLUID INTERACTION

This dissertation contains several approaches to resolve irregularity issues of CFD problems, including a decoupling of non-linearly coupled fluid-fluid interaction, due to high Reynolds number. New models present not only regularize the linear systems but also produce high accurate solutions both in space and time. To achieve this goal, methods solve a computationally attractive artificial viscosity approximation of the target problem, and then utilize a correction approach to make it high order accurate. This way, they all allow the usage of legacy code | a frequent requirement in the simulation of fluid flows in complex geometries. In addition, they all pave the way for parallelization of the correction step, which roughly halves the computational time for each method, i.e. solves at about the same time that is required for DNS with artificial viscosity. Also, methods present do not requires all over function evaluations as one can store them, and reuse for the correction steps. All of the chapters in this dissertation are self-contained, and introduce model first, and then present both theoretical and computational findings of the corresponding method