A mesh adaptivity scheme on the Landau-de Gennes functional minimization case in 3D, and its driving efficiency

This paper presents a 3D mesh adaptivity strategy on unstructured tetrahedral meshes by a posteriori error estimates based on metrics, studied on the case of a nonlinear finite element minimization scheme for the Landau-de Gennes free energy functional of nematic liquid crystals. Newton's iteration for tensor fields is employed with steepest descent method possibly stepping in. Aspects relating the driving of mesh adaptivity within the nonlinear scheme are considered. The algorithmic performance is found to depend on at least two factors: when to trigger each single mesh adaptation, and the precision of the correlated remeshing. Each factor is represented by a parameter, with its values possibly varying for every new mesh adaptation. We empirically show that the time of the overall algorithm convergence can vary considerably when different sequences of parameters are used, thus posing a question about optimality. The extensive testings and debugging done within this work on the simulation of systems of nematic colloids substantially contributed to the upgrade of an open source finite element-oriented programming language to its 3D meshing possibilities, as also to an outer 3D remeshing module

A finite-element toolbox for the stationary Gross-Pitaevskii equation with rotation

We present a new numerical system using classical finite elements with mesh adaptivity for computing stationary solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The programs are written as a toolbox for FreeFem++ (www.freefem.org), a free finite-element software available for all existing operating systems. This offers the advantage to hide all technical issues related to the implementation of the finite element method, allowing to easily implement various numerical algorithms.Two robust and optimised numerical methods were implemented to minimize the Gross-Pitaevskii energy: a steepest descent method based on Sobolev gradients and a minimization algorithm based on the state-of-the-art optimization library Ipopt. For both methods, mesh adaptivity strategies are implemented to reduce the computational time and increase the local spatial accuracy when vortices are present. Different run cases are made available for 2D and 3D configurations of Bose-Einstein condensates in rotation. An optional graphical user interface is also provided, allowing to easily run predefined cases or with user-defined parameter files. We also provide several post-processing tools (like the identification of quantized vortices) that could help in extracting physical features from the simulations. The toolbox is extremely versatile and can be easily adapted to deal with different physical models

Overlapping Domain Decomposition Methods with FreeFem++

International audienceIn this note, the performances of a framework for two-level overlapping domain decomposition methods are assessed. Numerical experiments are run on Curie, a Tier-0 system for PRACE, for two second order elliptic PDE with highly heterogeneous coefficients: a scalar equation of diffusivity and the system of linear elasticity. Those experiments yield systems with up to ten billion unknowns in 2D and one billion unknowns in 3D, solved on few thousands cores

Scalable Domain Decomposition Preconditioners for Heterogeneous Elliptic Problems

International audienceDomain decomposition methods are, alongside multigrid methods, one of the dominant paradigms in contemporary large-scale partial differential equation simulation. In this paper, a lightweight implementation of a theoretically and numerically scalable preconditioner is presented in the context of overlapping methods. The performance of this work is assessed by numerical simulations executed on thousands of cores, for solving various highly heterogeneous elliptic problems in both 2D and 3D with billions of degrees of freedom. Such problems arise in computational science and engineering, in solid and fluid mechanics. While focusing on overlapping domain decomposition methods might seem too restrictive, it will be shown how this work can be applied to a variety of other methods, such as non-overlapping methods and abstract deflation based preconditioners. It is also presented how multilevel preconditioners can be used to avoid communication during an iterative process such as a Krylov method

Frictionless contact problem for hyperelastic materials with interior point optimizer

This paper presents a method to solve the mechanical problems undergoing finite deformations and the unilateral contact problems without friction for hyperelastic materials. We apply it to an industrial application: contact between a mechanical gasket and an obstacle. The main idea is to formulate the contact problem into an optimization's one, in order to use the Interior Point OPTimizer (IPOPT) to solve it. Finally, the FreeFEM software is used to compute and solve the contact problem. Our method is validated against several benchmarks and used on an industrial application example

R-adaptation par l'estimateur d'erreur hiérarchique

International audienceThe aim of this work is to devise a method to determine the optimal position of the nodes in a finite element discretization for a boundary value problem. The node displacement procedure (also called R-adaptation) is a crucial step in a global mesh adaptation procedure. In the present approch, we determine the nodal position by minimizing the approximation error. This error is evaluated using a hierarchical estimator. A numerical test is presented.L'objectif de ce travail est de déterminer la meilleure position des noeuds d'un maillage, utilisé lors de la discrétisation d'un problème aux limites par la méthode des éléments finis. La procédure de déplacement des noeuds (appelé aussi R-adaptation) est une étape importante dans la stratégie globale d'adaptation de maillage. La position optimale des noeuds est déterminée en minimisant l'erreur d'approximation. Pour évaluer cette erreur nous utilisons l'estimateur d'erreur hiérarchique. Un test numérique est présenté

Identification of vortices in quantum fluids: finite element algorithms and programs

We present finite-element numerical algorithms for the identification of vortices in quantum fluids described by a macroscopic complex wave function. Their implementation using the free software FreeFem++ is distributed with this paper as a post-processing toolbox that can be used to analyse numerical or experimental data. Applications for Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) and superfluid helium flows are presented. Programs are tested and validated using either numerical data obtained by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation or experimental images of rotating BEC. Vortex positions are computed as topological defects (zeros) of the wave function when numerical data are used. For experimental images, we compute vortex positions as local minima of the atomic density, extracted after a simple image processing. Once vortex centers are identified, we use a fit with a Gaussian to precisely estimate vortex radius. For vortex lattices, the lattice parameter (inter-vortex distance) is also computed. The post-processing toolbox offers a complete description of vortex configurations in superfluids. Tests for two-dimensional (giant vortex in rotating BEC, Abrikosov vortex lattice in experimental BEC) and three-dimensional (vortex rings, Kelvin waves and quantum turbulence fields in superfluid helium) configurations show the robustness of the software. The communication with programs providing the numerical or experimental wave function field is simple and intuitive. The post-processing toolbox can be also applied for the identification of vortices in superconductors

Mortar finite element discretization of a model coupling Darcy and Stokes equations

As a first draft of a model for a river flowing on a homogeneous porous ground, we consider a system where the Darcy and Stokes equations are coupled via appropriate matching conditions on the interface. We propose a discretization of this problem which combines the mortar method with standard finite elements, in order to handle separately the flow inside and outside the porous medium. We prove a priori and a posteriori error estimates for the resulting discrete problem. Some numerical experiments confirm the interest of the discretization.EU Marie CurieMinisterio de Educación y Cienci