Per Pettersson

Per Pettersson, Hamdi A. Tchelepi

The generalized polynomial chaos method is applied to the Buckley-Leverett equation. We consider a spatially homogeneous domain modeled as a random field. The problem is projected onto stochastic basis functions which yields an extended system of partial differential equations. Analysis and numerical methods leading to reduced computational cost are presented for the extended system of equations. The accurate representation of the evolution of a discontinuous stochastic solution over time requires a large number of stochastic basis functions. Adaptivity of the stochastic basis to reduce computational cost is challenging in the stochastic Galerkin setting since the change of basis affects the system matrix itself. To achieve adaptivity without adding overhead by rewriting the entire system of equations for every grid cell, we devise a basis reduction method that distinguishes between locally significant and insignificant modes without changing the actual system matrices. Results are presented for problems in one and two spatial dimensions, with varying number of stochastic dimensions. We show how to obtain stochastic velocity fields from realistic permeability fields and demonstrate the performance of the stochastic Galerkin method with local basis reduction. The system of conservation laws is discretized with a finite volume method and we demonstrate numerical convergence to the reference solution obtained through Monte Carlo sampling.

Per Pettersson, Alireza Doostan, Jan Nordström

Stochastic physical problems governed by nonlinear conservation laws are challenging due to solution discontinuities in stochastic and physical space. In this paper, we present a level set method to track discontinuities in stochastic space by solving a Hamilton-Jacobi equation. By introducing a speed function that vanishes at discontinuities, the iso-zero of the level set problem coincide with the discontinuities of the conservation law. The level set problem is solved on a sequence of successively finer grids in stochastic space. The method is adaptive in the sense that costly evaluations of the conservation law of interest are only performed in the vicinity of the discontinuities during the refinement stage. In regions of stochastic space where the solution is smooth, a surrogate method replaces expensive evaluations of the conservation law. The proposed method is tested in conjunction with different sets of localized orthogonal basis functions on simplex elements, as well as frames based on piecewise polynomials conforming to the level set function. The performance of the proposed method is compared to existing adaptive multi-element generalized polynomial chaos methods.

Philipp Öffner, Per Pettersson, Andrew R. Winters

Recently, two independent research efforts have been made to study the stochastic Galerkin formulation of the shallow water equations. %In particular, Bender and Öffner developed entropy-conservative discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods to solve the stochastic shallow water equations in an stochastic Galerkin framework using Roe variable transformation, while Dai, Epshteyn and collaborators proposed second-order, energy-stable and well-balanced schemes for the same class of problems with a specific projection step used inside the Galerkin projection together with high-order quadrature rules and a time-step restriction. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive comparison of the two methodologies mentioned, focusing on their theoretical properties and practical implementation aspects. We highlight shared foundational concepts and key differences of both approaches, with a particular focus on the selection of basis functions in the stochastic domain. As a highlight, we show that under specific conditions, the two formulations align, offering a unified framework that connects these distinct approaches. From our theoretical findings, we extend the development of high-order entropy conservative DG methods for the one-dimensional stochastic Galerkin shallow equations to two space dimensions; constructing entropy conservative two-point fluxes via primitive variables instead of entropy variables and applying it in our high-order DG setting. In numerical simulations, we verify and support our theoretical findings of a well-balanced and entropy-stable DG scheme which can be used to solve geophyiscal fluid flows with uncertainty.