Thomas Führer

Michael Feischl, Thomas Führer, Dirk Praetorius

We analyze adaptive mesh-refining algorithms for conforming finite element discretizations of certain non-linear second-order partial differential equations. We allow continuous polynomials of arbitrary, but fixed polynomial order. The adaptivity is driven by the residual error estimator. We prove convergence even with optimal algebraic convergence rates. In particular, our analysis covers general linear second-order elliptic operators. Unlike prior works for linear non-symmetric operators, our analysis avoids the interior node property for the refinement, and the differential operator has to satisfy a Gårding inequality only. If the differential operator is uniformly elliptic, no additional assumption on the initial mesh is posed.

Markus Aurada, Michael Feischl, Thomas Führer et al.

We consider a (possibly) nonlinear interface problem in 2D and 3D, which is solved by use of various adaptive FEM-BEM coupling strategies, namely the Johnson-Nédélec coupling, the Bielak-MacCamy coupling, and Costabel's symmetric coupling. We provide a framework to prove that the continuous as well as the discrete Galerkin solutions of these coupling methods additionally solve an appropriate operator equation with a Lipschitz continuous and strongly monotone operator. Therefore, the coupling formulations are well-defined, and the Galerkin solutions are quasi-optimal in the sense of a Céa-type lemma. For the respective Galerkin discretizations with lowest-order polynomials, we provide reliable residual-based error estimators. Together with an estimator reduction property, we prove convergence of the adaptive FEM-BEM coupling methods. A key point for the proof of the estimator reduction are novel inverse-type estimates for the involved boundary integral operators which are advertized. Numerical experiments conclude the work and compare performance and effectivity of the three adaptive coupling procedures in the presence of generic singularities.

Florian Bruckner, Michael Feischl, Thomas Führer et al.

Various applications ranging from spintronic devices, giant magnetoresistance sensors, and magnetic storage devices, include magnetic parts on very different length scales. Since the consideration of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation (LLG) constrains the maximum element size to the exchange length within the media, it is numerically not attractive to simulate macroscopic parts with this approach. On the other hand, the magnetostatic Maxwell equations do not constrain the element size, but cannot describe the short-range exchange interaction accurately. A combination of both methods allows to describe magnetic domains within the micromagnetic regime by use of LLG and also considers the macroscopic parts by a non-linear material law using the Maxwell equations. In our work, we prove that under certain assumptions on the non-linear material law, this multiscale version of LLG admits weak solutions. Our proof is constructive in the sense that we provide a linear-implicit numerical integrator for the multiscale model such that the numerically computable finite element solutions admit weak $H^1$-convergence (at least for a subsequence) towards a weak solution.

Thomas Führer, Alexander Haberl, Dirk Praetorius et al.

We consider the preconditioned conjugate gradient method (PCG) with optimal preconditioner in the frame of the boundary element method (BEM) for elliptic first-kind integral equations. Our adaptive algorithm steers the termination of PCG as well as the local mesh-refinement. Besides convergence with optimal algebraic rates, we also prove almost optimal computational complexity. In particular, we provide an additive Schwarz preconditioner which can be computed in linear complexity and which is optimal in the sense that the condition numbers of the preconditioned systems are uniformly bounded. As model problem serves the 2D or 3D Laplace operator and the associated weakly-singular integral equation with energy space $\widetilde{H}^{-1/2}(Γ)$. The main results also hold for the hyper-singular integral equation with energy space $H^{1/2}(Γ)$.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer, Antti H. Niemi

We develop and analyze an ultraweak variational formulation for a variant of the Kirchhoff-Love plate bending model. Based on this formulation, we introduce a discretization of the discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin type with optimal test functions (DPG). We prove well-posedness of the ultraweak formulation and quasi-optimal convergence of the DPG scheme. The variational formulation and its analysis require tools that control traces and jumps in $H^2$ (standard Sobolev space of scalar functions) and $H(\mathrm{div\,Div})$ (symmetric tensor functions with $L_2$-components whose twice iterated divergence is in $L_2$), and their dualities. These tools are developed in two and three spatial dimensions. One specific result concerns localized traces in a dense subspace of $H(\mathrm{div\,Div})$. They are essential to construct basis functions for an approximation of $H(\mathrm{div\,Div})$. To illustrate the theory we construct basis functions of the lowest order and perform numerical experiments for a smooth and a singular model solution. They confirm the expected convergence behavior of the DPG method both for uniform and adaptively refined meshes.

Michael Feischl, Thomas Führer, Michael Karkulik et al.

We consider symmetric as well as non-symmetric coupling formulations of FEM and BEM in the frame of nonlinear elasticity problems. In particular, the Johnson-Nédélec coupling is analyzed. We prove that these coupling formulations are well-posed and allow for unique Galerkin solutions if standard discretizations by piecewise polynomials are employed. Unlike prior works, our analysis does neither rely on an interior Dirichlet boundary to tackle the rigid body motions nor on any assumption on the mesh-size of the discretization used.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer, Jhuma Sen Gupta

We introduce and analyze a discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin method with optimal test functions for the heat equation. The scheme is based on the backward Euler time stepping and uses an ultra-weak variational formulation at each time step. We prove the stability of the method for the field variables (the original unknown and its gradient weighted by the square root of the time step) and derive a Céa-type error estimate. For low-order approximation spaces this implies certain convergence orders when time steps are not too small in comparison with mesh sizes. Some numerical experiments are reported to support our theoretical results.

Markus Aurada, Michael Feischl, Thomas Führer et al.

We prove inverse-type estimates for the four classical boundary integral operators associated with the Laplace operator. These estimates are used to show convergence of an h-adaptive algorithm for the coupling of a finite element method with a boundary element method which is driven by a weighted residual error estimator.

Thomas Führer, Dirk Praetorius

We propose an Uzawa-type iteration for the Johnson-Nédélec formulation of a Laplace-type transmission problem with possible (strongly monotone) nonlinearity in the interior domain. In each step, we sequentially solve one BEM for the weakly-singular integral equation associated with the Laplace-operator and one FEM for the linear Yukawa equation. In particular, the nonlinearity is only evaluated to build the right-hand side of the Yukawa equation. We prove that the proposed method leads to linear convergence with respect to the number of Uzawa iterations. Moreover, while the current analysis of a direct FEM-BEM discretization of the Johnson-Nédélec formulation requires some restrictions on the ellipticity (resp. strong monotonicity constant) in the interior domain, our Uzawa-type solver avoids such assumptions.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer

We extend the analysis and discretization of the Kirchhoff-Love plate bending problem from [T. Führer, N. Heuer, A.H. Niemi, An ultraweak formulation of the Kirchhoff-Love plate bending model and DPG approximation, arXiv:1805.07835, 2018] in two aspects. First, we present a well-posed formulation and quasi-optimal DPG discretization that includes the gradient of the deflection. Second, we construct Fortin operators that prove the well-posedness and quasi-optimal convergence of lowest-order discrete schemes with approximated test functions for both formulations. Our results apply to the case of non-convex polygonal plates where shear forces can be less than $L_2$-regular. Numerical results illustrate expected convergence orders.

Thomas Führer, Gregor Gantner, Dirk Praetorius et al.

We define and analyze (local) multilevel diagonal preconditioners for isogeometric boundary elements on locally refined meshes in two dimensions. Hypersingular and weakly-singular integral equations are considered. We prove that the condition number of the preconditioned systems of linear equations is independent of the mesh-size and the refinement level. Therefore, the computational complexity, when using appropriate iterative solvers, is optimal. Our analysis is carried out for closed and open boundaries and numerical examples confirm our theoretical results.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer, Michael Karkulik et al.

We propose and analyze a discretization scheme that combines the discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin and finite element methods. The underlying model problem is of general diffusion-advection-reaction type on bounded domains, with decomposition into two sub-domains. We propose a heterogeneous variational formulation that is of the ultra-weak (Petrov-Galerkin) form with broken test space in one part, and of Bubnov-Galerkin form in the other. A standard discretization with conforming approximation spaces and appropriate test spaces (optimal test functions for the ultra-weak part and standard test functions for the Bubnov-Galerkin part) gives rise to a coupled DPG-FEM scheme. We prove its well-posedness and quasi-optimal convergence. Numerical results confirm expected convergence orders.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer

We present quasi-diagonal preconditioners for piecewise polynomial discretizations of pseudodifferential operators of order minus two in any space dimension. Here, quasi-diagonal means diagonal up to a sparse transformation. Considering shape regular simplicial meshes and arbitrary fixed polynomial degrees, we prove, for dimensions larger than one, that our preconditioners are asymptotically optimal. Numerical experiments in two, three and four dimensions confirm our results. For each dimension, we report on condition numbers for piecewise constant and piecewise linear polynomials.

Thomas Führer, Michael Karkulik

We provide new insights into the a priori theory for a time-stepping scheme based on least-squares finite element methods for parabolic first-order systems. The elliptic part of the problem is of general reaction-convection-diffusion type. The new ingredient in the analysis is an elliptic projection operator defined via a non-symmetric bilinear form, although the main bilinear form corresponding to the least-squares functional is symmetric. This new operator allows to prove optimal error estimates in the natural norm associated to the problem and, under additional regularity assumptions, in the $L^2$ norm. Numerical experiments are presented which confirm our theoretical findings.

Thomas Führer

We consider DPG methods with optimal test functions and broken test spaces based on ultra-weak formulations of general second order elliptic problems. Under some assumptions on the regularity of solutions of the model problem and its adjoint, superconvergence for the scalar field variable is achieved by either increasing the polynomial degree in the corresponding approximation space by one or by a local postprocessing. We provide a uniform analysis that allows to treat different test norms. Particularly, we show that in the presence of convection only the quasi-optimal test norm leads to higher convergence rates, whereas other norms considered do not. Moreover, we also prove that our DPG method delivers the best $L^2$ approximation of the scalar field variable up to higher order terms, which is the first theoretical explanation of an observation made previously by different authors. Numerical studies that support our theoretical findings are presented.

Thomas Führer, Paula Hilbert, Ani Miraçi et al.

We analyze optimal complexity of adaptive finite element methods (AFEMs) for general second-order linear elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) in the Lax-Milgram setting. To this end, we formulate an adaptive algorithm which steers the local mesh-refinement as well as the termination of a generalized minimal residual solver (GMRES) with optimal preconditioner to solve the arising non-symmetric finite element systems. Algorithmic interplay of mesh-refinement and iterative solver is shown to be optimal: A natural and fully computable quasi-error monitoring discretization error and algebraic solver error guarantees unconditional convergence for any choice of adaptivity parameters, i.e., the algorithm cannot fail to converge. This is ensured algorithmically via a novel adaptive feedback-control for the solver-termination parameter that monitors and ensures full R-linear convergence. Finally, the quasi-error even decays with optimal rates with respect to the overall computational complexity if the adaptivity parameters are chosen sufficiently small.

Thomas Führer

In this work we study a DPG method for an ultra-weak variational formulation of a reaction-diffusion problem. We improve existing a priori convergence results by sharpening an approximation result for the numerical flux. By duality arguments we show that higher convergence rates for the scalar field variable are obtained if the polynomial order of the corresponding approximation space is increased by one. Furthermore, we introduce a simple elementwise postprocessing of the solution and prove superconvergence. Numerical experiments indicate that the obtained results are valid beyond the underlying model problem.

Thomas Führer

We define and analyse a least-squares finite element method for a first-order reformulation of the obstacle problem. Moreover, we derive variational inequalities that are based on similar but non-symmetric bilinear forms. A priori error estimates including the case of non-conforming convex sets are given and optimal convergence rates are shown for the lowest-order case. We provide also a posteriori bounds that can be be used as error indicators in an adaptive algorithm. Numerical studies are presented.

Giovanni Di Fratta, Thomas Führer, Gregor Gantner et al.

Based on the Uzawa algorithm, we consider an adaptive finite element method for the Stokes system. We prove linear convergence with optimal algebraic rates for the residual estimator (which is equivalent to the total error), if the arising linear systems are solved iteratively, e.g., by PCG. Our analysis avoids the use of discrete efficiency of the estimator. Unlike prior work, our adaptive Uzawa algorithm can thus avoid to discretize the given data and does not rely on an interior node property for the refinement.

Thomas Führer, Alexander Haberl, Norbert Heuer

We study several trace operators and spaces that are related to the bi-Laplacian. They are motivated by the development of ultraweak formulations for the bi-Laplace equation with homogeneous Dirichlet condition, but are also relevant to describe conformity of mixed approximations. Our aim is to have well-posed (ultraweak) formulations that assume low regularity, under the condition of an $L_2$ right-hand side function. We pursue two ways of defining traces and corresponding integration-by-parts formulas. In one case one obtains a non-closed space. This can be fixed by switching to the Kirchhoff-Love traces from [Führer, Heuer, Niemi, An ultraweak formulation of the Kirchhoff-Love plate bending model and DPG approximation, Math. Comp., 88 (2019)]. Using different combinations of trace operators we obtain two well-posed formulations. For both of them we report on numerical experiments with the DPG method and optimal test functions. In this paper we consider two and three space dimensions. However, with the exception of a given counterexample in an appendix (related to the non-closedness of a trace space), our analysis applies to any space dimension larger than or equal to two.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer

We consider a transmission problem consisting of a singularly perturbed reaction diffusion equation on a bounded domain and the Laplacian in the exterior, connected through standard transmission conditions. We establish a DPG scheme coupled with Galerkin boundary elements for its discretization, and prove its robustness for the field variables in so-called balanced norms. Our coupling scheme is the one from [Führer, Heuer, Karkulik: On the coupling of DPG and BEM, arXiv:1508.00630], adapted to the singularly perturbed case by using the scheme from [Heuer, Karkulik: A robust DPG method for singularly perturbed reaction diffusion problems, arXiv:1509.07560]. Essential feature of our method is that optimal test functions have to be computed only locally. We report on various numerical experiments in two dimensions.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer, Ernst P. Stephan

We derive and analyze discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin methods with optimal test functions for Signorini-type problems as a prototype of a variational inequality of the first kind. We present different symmetric and non-symmetric formulations where optimal test functions are only used for the PDE part of the problem, not the boundary conditions. For the symmetric case and lowest order approximations, we provide a simple a posteriori error estimate. In a second part, we apply our technique to the singularly perturbed case of reaction dominated diffusion. Numerical results show the performance of our method and, in particular, its robustness in the singularly perturbed case.

Thomas Führer, Jens Markus Melenk, Dirk Praetorius et al.

We propose and analyze an overlapping Schwarz preconditioner for the $p$ and $hp$ boundary element method for the hypersingular integral equation in 3D. We consider surface triangulations consisting of triangles. The condition number is bounded uniformly in the mesh size $h$ and the polynomial order $p$. The preconditioner handles adaptively refined meshes and is based on a local multilevel preconditioner for the lowest order space. Numerical experiments on different geometries illustrate its robustness.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer, Michael Karkulik

We develop and analyze strategies to couple the discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin method with optimal test functions to (i) least-squares boundary elements and (ii) various variants of standard Galerkin boundary elements. Essential feature of our methods is that, despite the use of boundary integral equations, optimal test functions have to be computed only locally. We apply our findings to a standard transmission problem in full space and present numerical experiments to validate our theory.

Vincent J. Ervin, Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer et al.

We develop an ultra-weak variational formulation of a fractional advection diffusion problem in one space dimension and prove its well-posedness. Based on this formulation, we define a DPG approximation with optimal test functions and show its quasi-optimal convergence. Numerical experiments confirm expected convergence properties, for uniform and adaptively refined meshes.

Thomas Führer, Norbert Heuer

We present and analyze a preconditioner of the additive Schwarz type for the mortar boundary element method. As a basic splitting, on each subdomain we separate the degrees of freedom related to its boundary from the inner degrees of freedom. The corresponding wirebasket-type space decomposition is stable up to logarithmic terms. For the blocks that correspond to the inner degrees of freedom standard preconditioners for the hypersingular integral operator on open boundaries can be used. For the boundary and interface parts as well as the Lagrangian multiplier space, simple diagonal preconditioners are optimal. Our technique applies to quasi-uniform and non-uniform meshes of shape-regular elements. Numerical experiments on triangular and quadrilateral meshes confirm theoretical bounds for condition and MINRES iteration numbers.

Markus Aurada, Michael Feischl, Thomas Führer et al.

We prove local inverse-type estimates for the four non-local boundary integral operators associated with the Laplace operator on a bounded d-dimensional Lipschitz domain Omega for d >= 2 with piecewise smooth boundary. For piecewise polynomial ansatz spaces and d = 2 or 3, the inverse estimates are explicit in both the local mesh width and the approximation order. An application to efficiency estimates in a posteriori error estimation in boundary element methods is given.