Output error estimation strategies for discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of unsteady convection‐dominated flows

We study practical strategies for estimating numerical errors in scalar outputs calculated from unsteady simulations of convection‐dominated flows, including those governed by the compressible Navier–Stokes equations. The discretization is a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method in space and time on static spatial meshes. Time‐integral quantities are considered for scalar outputs and these are shown to superconverge with temporal refinement. Output error estimates are calculated using the adjoint‐weighted residual method, where the unsteady adjoint solution is obtained using a discrete approach with an iterative solver. We investigate the accuracy versus computational cost trade‐off for various approximations of the fine‐space adjoint and find that exact adjoint solutions are accurate but expensive. To reduce the cost, we propose a local temporal reconstruction that takes advantage of superconvergence properties at Radau points, and a spatial reconstruction based on nearest‐neighbor elements. This inexact adjoint yields output error estimates at a computational cost of less than 2.5 times that of the forward problem for the cases tested. The calculated error estimates account for numerical error arising from both the spatial and temporal discretizations, and we present a method for identifying the percentage contributions of each discretization to the output error. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88080/1/3224_ftp.pd

Mixed finite element domain decomposition for nonlinear parabolic problems

AbstractFully discrete mixed finite element method is considered to approximate the solution of a nonlinear second-order parabolic problem. A massively parallel iterative procedure based on domain decomposition technique is presented to solve resulting nonlinear algebraic equations. Robin type boundary conditions are used to transmit information between subdomains. The convergence of the iteration for each time step is demonstrated. Optimal-order error estimates are also derived. Numerical examples are given

The Postprocessed Mixed Finite-Element Method for the Navier–Stokes Equations: Refined Error Bounds

A postprocessing technique for mixed finite-element methods for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is analyzed. The postprocess, which amounts to solving a (linear) Stokes problem, is shown to increase the order of convergence of the method to which it is applied by one unit (times the logarithm of the mesh diameter). In proving the error bounds, some superconvergence results are also obtained. Contrary to previous analysis of the postprocessing technique, in the present paper we take into account the loss of regularity suffered by the solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations at the initial time in the absence of nonlocal compatibility conditions of the data.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia MTM2006- 0084

A RBF partition of unity collocation method based on finite difference for initial-boundary value problems

Meshfree radial basis function (RBF) methods are popular tools used to numerically solve partial differential equations (PDEs). They take advantage of being flexible with respect to geometry, easy to implement in higher dimensions, and can also provide high order convergence. Since one of the main disadvantages of global RBF-based methods is generally the computational cost associated with the solution of large linear systems, in this paper we focus on a localizing RBF partition of unity method (RBF-PUM) based on a finite difference (FD) scheme. Specifically, we propose a new RBF-PUM-FD collocation method, which can successfully be applied to solve time-dependent PDEs. This approach allows to significantly decrease ill-conditioning of traditional RBF-based methods. Moreover, the RBF-PUM-FD scheme results in a sparse matrix system, reducing the computational effort but maintaining at the same time a high level of accuracy. Numerical experiments show performances of our collocation scheme on two benchmark problems, involving unsteady convection-diffusion and pseudo-parabolic equations

Two-grid methods of finite element approximation for parabolic integro-differential optimal control problems

In this paper, we present a two-grid scheme of fully discrete finite element approximation for optimal control problems governed by parabolic integro-differential equations. The state and co-state variables are approximated by a piecewise linear function and the control variable is discretized by a piecewise constant function. First, we derive the optimal a priori error estimates for all variables. Second, we prove the global superconvergence by using the recovery techniques. Third, we construct a two-grid algorithm and discuss its convergence. In the proposed two-grid scheme, the solution of the parabolic optimal control problem on a fine grid is reduced to the solution of the parabolic optimal control problem on a much coarser grid; additionally, the solution of a linear algebraic system on the fine grid and the resulting solution maintain an asymptotically optimal accuracy. Finally, we present a numerical example to verify the theoretical results