Variational Mesh Adaptation Methods for Axisymmetrical Problems

Abstract

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1137/S0036142902401591.We study variational mesh adaptation for axially symmetric solutions to two-dimensional problems. The study is focused on the relationship between the mesh density distribution and the monitor function and is carried out for a traditional functional that includes several widely used variational methods as special cases and a recently proposed functional that allows for a weighting between mesh isotropy (or regularity) and global equidistribution of the monitor function. The main results are stated in Theorems \ref{thm4.1} and \ref{thm4.2}. For axially symmetric problems, it is natural to choose axially symmetric mesh adaptation. To this end, it is reasonable to use the monitor function in the form G = \lambda_1(r) {\mbox{\boldmath {e}}}_r {\mbox{\boldmath {e}}}_r^T + \lambda_2(r) {\mbox{\boldmath {e}}} _\theta {\mbox{\boldmath {e}}}_\theta^T , where {\mbox{\boldmath {e}}}_r and {\mbox{\boldmath {e}}}_\theta are the radial and angular unit vectors. It is shown that when higher mesh concentration at the origin is desired, a choice of $\lambda_1$ and $\lambda_2$ satisfying $\lambda_1(0) 0$ by choosing $\lambda_1$ and $\lambda_2$. In contrast, numerical results show that the new functional provides better control of the mesh concentration through the monitor function. Two-dimensional numerical results are presented to support the analysis