Harald Garcke

John W. Barrett, Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg

Biomembranes and vesicles consisting of multiple phases can attain a multitude of shapes, undergoing complex shape transitions. We study a Cahn--Hilliard model on an evolving hypersurface coupled to Navier--Stokes equations on the surface and in the surrounding medium to model these phenomena. The evolution is driven by a curvature energy, modelling the elasticity of the membrane, and by a Cahn--Hilliard type energy, modelling line energy effects. A stable semidiscrete finite element approximation is introduced and, with the help of a fully discrete method, several phenomena occurring for two-phase membranes are computed.

John W. Barrett, Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg

We introduce unconditionally stable finite element approximations for a phase field model for solidification, which take highly anisotropic surface energy and kinetic effects into account. We hence approximate Stefan problems with anisotropic Gibbs--Thomson law with kinetic undercooling, and quasi-static variants thereof. The phase field model is given by {align*} \vartheta\,w_t + λ\,\varrho(φ)\,φ_t & = \nabla \,.\, (b(φ)\,\nabla\, w) \,, \cPsi\,\tfrac{a}α\,\varrho(φ)\,w & = ε\,\tfracρα\,μ(\nabla\,φ)\,φ_t -ε\,\nabla \,.\, A'(\nabla\, φ) + ε^{-1}\,Ψ'(φ) {align*} subject to initial and boundary conditions for the phase variable $φ$ and the temperature approximation $w$. Here $ε> 0$ is the interfacial parameter, $Ψ$ is a double well potential, $\cPsi = \int_{-1}^1 \sqrt{2\,Ψ(s)}\;{\rm d}s$, $\varrho$ is a shape function and $A(\nabla\,φ) = \tfrac12\,|γ(\nabla\,φ)|^2$, where $γ$ is the anisotropic density function. Moreover, $\vartheta \geq 0$, $λ> 0$, $a > 0$, $α> 0$ and $ρ\geq 0$ are physical parameters from the Stefan problem, while $b$ and $μ$ are coefficient functions which also relate to the sharp interface problem. On introducing the novel fully practical finite element approximations for the anisotropic phase field model, we prove their stability and demonstrate their applicability with some numerical results.

John W. Barrett, Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg

We introduce unconditionally stable finite element approximations for anisotropic Allen--Cahn and Cahn--Hilliard equations. These equations frequently feature in phase field models that appear in materials science. On introducing the novel fully practical finite element approximations we prove their stability and demonstrate their applicability with some numerical results. We dedicate this article to the memory of our colleague and friend Christof Eck (1968--2011) in recognition of his fundamental contributions to phase field models.

John W. Barrett, Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg

We present natural axisymmetric variants of schemes for curvature flows introduced earlier by the present authors and analyze them in detail. Although numerical methods for geometric flows have been used frequently in axisymmetric settings, numerical analysis results so far are rare. In this paper, we present stability, equidistribution, existence and uniqueness results for the introduced approximations. Numerical computations show that these schemes are very efficient in computing numerical solutions of geometric flows as only a spatially one-dimensional problem has to be solved. The good mesh properties of the schemes also allow them to compute in very complex axisymmetric geometries.

John W. Barrett, Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg

We critically compare the practicality and accuracy of numerical approximations of phase field models and sharp interface models of solidification. Particular emphasis is put on Stefan problems, and their quasi-static variants, with applications to crystal growth. New approaches with a high mesh quality for the parametric approximations of the resulting free boundary problems and new stable discretizations of the anisotropic phase field system are taken into account in a comparison involving benchmark problems based on exact solutions of the free boundary problem.

John W. Barrett, Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg

A finite element method for the evolution of a two-phase membrane in a sharp interface formulation is introduced. The evolution equations are given as an $L^2$--gradient flow of an energy involving an elastic bending energy and a line energy. In the two phases Helfrich-type evolution equations are prescribed, and on the interface, an evolving curve on an evolving surface, highly nonlinear boundary conditions have to hold. Here we consider both $C^0$-- and $C^1$--matching conditions for the surface at the interface. A new weak formulation is introduced, allowing for a stable semidiscrete parametric finite element approximation of the governing equations. In addition, we show existence and uniqueness for a fully discrete version of the scheme. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the approach can deal with a multitude of geometries. In particular, the paper shows the first computations based on a sharp interface description, which are not restricted to the axisymmetric case.

Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg, Quan Zhao

We propose and analyze an energy-stable fully discrete parametric approximation for Willmore flow of hypersurfaces in two and three space dimensions. We allow for the presence of spontaneous curvature effects and for open surfaces with boundary. The presented scheme is based on a new geometric partial differential equation (PDE) that combines an evolution equation for the mean curvature with a separate equation that prescribes the tangential velocity. The mean curvature is used to determine the normal velocity within the gradient flow structure, thus guaranteeing an unconditional energy stability for the discrete solution upon suitable discretization. We introduce a novel weak formulation for this geometric PDE, in which different types of boundary conditions can be naturally enforced. We further discretize the weak formulation to obtain a fully discrete parametric finite element method, for which well-posedness can be rigorously shown. Moreover, the constructed scheme admits an unconditional stability estimate in terms of the discrete energy. Extensive numerical experiments are reported to showcase the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method for computing Willmore flow of both curves in $\mathbb{R}^2$ and surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$.

Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg, Quan Zhao

We consider fully discrete numerical approximations for axisymmetric Willmore flow that are unconditionally stable and work reliably without remeshing. We restrict our attention to surfaces without boundary, but allow for spontaneous curvature effects. The axisymmetric setting allows us to formulate our schemes in terms of the generating curve of the considered surface. We propose a novel weak formulation, that combines an evolution equation for the surface's mean curvature and the curvature identity of the generating curve. The mean curvature is used to describe the gradient flow structure, which enables an unconditional stability result for the discrete solutions. The generating curve's curvature, on the other hand, describes the surface's in-plane principal curvature and plays the role of a Lagrange multiplier for an equidistribution property on the discrete level. We introduce two fully discrete schemes and prove their unconditional stability. Numerical results are provided to confirm the convergence, stability and equidistribution properties of the introduced schemes.

John W. Barrett, Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg

Fourth order curvature driven interface evolution equations frequently appear in the natural sciences. Often axisymmetric geometries are of interest, and in this situation numerical computations are much more efficient. We will introduce and analyze several new finite element schemes for fourth order geometric evolution equations in an axisymmetric setting, and for selected schemes we will show existence, uniqueness and stability results. The presented schemes have very good mesh and stability properties, as will be demonstrated by several numerical examples.

John W. Barrett, Harald Garcke, Robert Nürnberg

We introduce variational approximations for curve evolutions in two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds that are conformally flat, i.e.\ conformally equivalent to the Euclidean space. Examples include the hyperbolic plane, the hyperbolic disk, the elliptic plane as well as any conformal parameterization of a two-dimensional surface in ${\mathbb R}^d$, $d\geq 3$. In these spaces we introduce stable numerical schemes for curvature flow and curve diffusion, and we also formulate a scheme for elastic flow. Variants of the schemes can also be applied to geometric evolution equations for axisymmetric hypersurfaces in ${\mathbb R}^d$. Some of the schemes have very good properties with respect to the distribution of mesh points, which is demonstrated with the help of several numerical computations.

Harald Garcke, Kei Fong Lam, Vanessa Styles

The inpainting of damaged images has a wide range of applications, and many different mathematical methods have been proposed to solve this problem. Inpainting with the help of Cahn--Hilliard models has been particularly successful, and it turns out that Cahn--Hilliard inpainting with the double obstacle potential can lead to better results compared to inpainting with a smooth double well potential. However, a mathematical analysis of this approach is missing so far. In this paper we give first analytical results for a Cahn--Hilliard double obstacle inpainting model regarding existence of global solutions to the time-dependent problem and stationary solutions to the time-independent problem without constraints on the parameters involved. With the help of numerical results we show the effectiveness of the approach for binary and grayscale images.

Harald Garcke, Michael Hinze, Christian Kahle

We propose to model physical effects at the sharp density interface between atmosphere and ocean with the help of diffuse interface approaches for multiphase flows with variable densities. We use the variable-density model proposed in \cite{m6:AbelsGarckeGruen_CHNSmodell}. This results in a Cahn-Hilliard/Navier-Stokes type system which we complement with tangential Dirichlet boundary conditions to incorporate the effect of wind in the atmosphere. Wind is responsible for waves at the surface of the ocean, whose dynamics have an important impact on the $CO_2-$exchange between ocean and atmosphere. We tackle this mathematical model numerically with fully adaptive and integrated numerical schemes tailored to the simulation of variable density multiphase flows governed by diffuse interface models. Here, {\it fully adaptive, integrated, efficient, and reliable} means that the mesh resolution is chosen by the numerical algorithm according to a prescribed error tolerance in the {\it a posteriori} error control on the basis of residual-based error indicators, which allow to estimate the true error from below (efficient) and from above (reliable). Our approach is based on the work of \cite{m6:HintermuellerHinzeKahle_adaptiveCHNS,m6:GarckeHinzeKahle_CHNS_AGG_linearStableTimeDisc}, where a fully adaptive efficient and reliable numerical method for the simulation of two-dimensional multiphase flows with variable densities is developed. We incorporate the stimulation of surface waves via appropriate boundary conditions.

Heike Benninghoff, Harald Garcke

In this paper, we introduce a novel parametric method for segmentation of three-dimensional images. We consider a piecewise constant version of the Mumford-Shah and the Chan-Vese functionals and perform a region-based segmentation of 3D image data. An evolution law is derived from energy minimization problems which push the surfaces to the boundaries of 3D objects in the image. We propose a parametric scheme which describes the evolution of parametric surfaces. An efficient finite element scheme is proposed for a numerical approximation of the evolution equations. Since standard parametric methods cannot handle topology changes automatically, an efficient method is presented to detect, identify and perform changes in the topology of the surfaces. One main focus of this paper are the algorithmic details to handle topology changes like splitting and merging of surfaces and change of the genus of a surface. Different artificial images are studied to demonstrate the ability to detect the different types of topology changes. Finally, the parametric method is applied to segmentation of medical 3D images.

Heike Benninghoff, Harald Garcke

In this article, a new method for segmentation and restoration of images on two-dimensional surfaces is given. Active contour models for image segmentation are extended to images on surfaces. The evolving curves on the surfaces are mathematically described using a parametric approach. For image restoration, a diffusion equation with Neumann boundary conditions is solved in a postprocessing step in the individual regions. Numerical schemes are presented which allow to efficiently compute segmentations and denoised versions of images on surfaces. Also topology changes of the evolving curves are detected and performed using a fast sub-routine. Finally, several experiments are presented where the developed methods are applied on different artificial and real images defined on different surfaces.

Heike Benninghoff, Harald Garcke

In this paper, we introduce a novel approach for active contours with free endpoints. A scheme is presented for image segmentation and restoration based on a discrete version of the Mumford-Shah functional where the contours can be both closed and open curves. Additional to a flow of the curves in normal direction, evolution laws for the tangential flow of the endpoints are derived. Using a parametric approach to describe the evolving contours together with an edge-preserving denoising, we obtain a fast method for image segmentation and restoration. The analytical and numerical schemes are presented followed by numerical experiments with artificial test images and with a real medical image.

Heike Benninghoff, Harald Garcke

Curve evolution schemes for image segmentation based on a region based contour model allowing for junctions, vector-valued images and topology changes are introduced. Together with an a posteriori denoising in the segmented homogeneous regions this leads to a fast and efficient method for image segmentation and restoration. An uneven spread of mesh points is avoided by using the tangential degrees of freedom. Several numerical simulations on artificial test problems and on real images illustrate the performance of the method.