A C0C^0 Linear Finite Element Method for a Second Order Elliptic Equation in Non-Divergence Form with Cordes Coefficients

In this paper, we develop a gradient recovery based linear (GRBL) finite element method (FEM) and a Hessian recovery based linear (HRBL) FEM for second order elliptic equations in non-divergence form. The elliptic equation is casted into a symmetric non-divergence weak formulation, in which second order derivatives of the unknown function are involved. We use gradient and Hessian recovery operators to calculate the second order derivatives of linear finite element approximations. Although, thanks to low degrees of freedom (DOF) of linear elements, the implementation of the proposed schemes is easy and straightforward, the performances of the methods are competitive. The unique solvability and the $H^2$ seminorm error estimate of the GRBL scheme are rigorously proved. Optimal error estimates in both the $L^2$ norm and the $H^1$ seminorm have been proved when the coefficient is diagonal, which have been confirmed by numerical experiments. Superconvergence in errors has also been observed. Moreover, our methods can handle computational domains with curved boundaries without loss of accuracy from approximation of boundaries. Finally, the proposed numerical methods have been successfully applied to solve fully nonlinear Monge-Amp\`{e}re equations

Postprocessing of Non-Conservative Flux for Compatibility with Transport in Heterogeneous Media

A conservative flux postprocessing algorithm is presented for both steady-state and dynamic flow models. The postprocessed flux is shown to have the same convergence order as the original flux. An arbitrary flux approximation is projected into a conservative subspace by adding a piecewise constant correction that is minimized in a weighted $L^2$ norm. The application of a weighted norm appears to yield better results for heterogeneous media than the standard $L^2$ norm which has been considered in earlier works. We also study the effect of different flux calculations on the domain boundary. In particular we consider the continuous Galerkin finite element method for solving Darcy flow and couple it with a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for an advective transport problem.Comment: 34 pages, 17 figures, 11 table

Superconvergence of the effective Cauchy stress in computational homogenization of inelastic materials

We provide theoretical investigations and empirical evidence that the effective stresses in computational homogenization of inelastic materials converge with a higher rate than the local solution fields. Due to the complexity of industrial-scale microstructures, computational homogenization methods often utilize a rather crude approximation of the microstructure, favoring regular grids over accurate boundary representations. As the accuracy of such an approach has been under continuous verification for decades, it appears astonishing that this strategy is successful in homogenization, but is seldom used on component scale. A part of the puzzle has been solved recently, as it was shown that the effective elastic properties converge with twice the rate of the local strain and stress fields. Thus, although the local mechanical fields may be inaccurate, the averaging process leads to a cancellation of errors and improves the accuracy of the effective properties significantly. Unfortunately, the original argument is based on energetic considerations. The straightforward extension to the inelastic setting provides superconvergence of (pseudoelastic) potentials, but does not cover the primary quantity of interest: the effective stress tensor. The purpose of the work at hand is twofold. On the one hand, we provide extensive numerical experiments on the convergence rate of local and effective quantities for computational homogenization methods based on the fast Fourier transform. These indicate the superconvergence effect to be valid for effective stresses, as well. Moreover, we provide theoretical justification for such a superconvergence based on an argument that avoids energetic reasoning