Hong-lin Liao

Hong-lin Liao, William McLean, Jiwei Zhang

We consider a class of numerical approximations to the Caputo fractional derivative. Our assumptions permit the use of nonuniform time steps, such as is appropriate for accurately resolving the behavior of a solution whose derivatives are singular at~$t=0$. The main result is a type of fractional Grönwall inequality and we illustrate its use by outlining some stability and convergence estimates of schemes for fractional reaction-subdiffusion problems. This approach extends earlier work that used the familiar L1 approximation to the Caputo fractional derivative, and will facilitate the analysis of higher order and linearized fast schemes.

Dongfang Li, Hong-lin Liao, Weiwei Sun et al.

This paper is concerned with numerical solutions of time-fractional nonlinear parabolic problems by a class of $L1$-Galerkin finite element methods. The analysis of $L1$ methods for time-fractional nonlinear problems is limited mainly due to the lack of a fundamental Gronwall type inequality. In this paper, we establish such a fundamental inequality for the $L1$ approximation to the Caputo fractional derivative. In terms of the Gronwall type inequality, we provide optimal error estimates of several fully discrete linearized Galerkin finite element methods for nonlinear problems. The theoretical results are illustrated by applying our proposed methods to three examples: linear Fokker-Planck equation, nonlinear Huxley equation and Fisher equation.

Jincheng Ren, Hong-lin Liao, Jiwei Zhang et al.

Due to the intrinsically initial singularity of solution and the discrete convolution form in numerical Caputo derivatives, the traditional $H^1$-norm analysis (corresponding to the case for a classical diffusion equation) to the time approximations of a fractional subdiffusion problem always leads to suboptimal error estimates (a loss of time accuracy). To recover the theoretical accuracy in time, we propose an improved discrete Grönwall inequality and apply it to the well-known L1 formula and a fractional Crank-Nicolson scheme. With the help of a time-space error-splitting technique and the global consistency analysis, sharp $H^1$-norm error estimates of the two nonuniform approaches are established for a reaction-subdiffusion problems. Numerical experiments are included to confirm the sharpness of our analysis.

Hong-lin Liao, Yonggui Yan, Jiwei Zhang

A fast two-level linearized scheme with unequal time-steps is constructed and analyzed for an initial-boundary-value problem of semilinear subdiffusion equations. The two-level fast L1 formula of the Caputo derivative is derived based on the sum-of-exponentials technique. The resulting fast algorithm is computationally efficient in long-time simulations because it significantly reduces the computational cost $O(MN^2)$ and storage $O(MN)$ for the standard L1 formula to $O(MN\log N)$ and $O(M\log N)$, respectively, for $M$ grid points in space and $N$ levels in time. The nonuniform time mesh would be graded to handle the typical singularity of the solution near the time $t=0$, and Newton linearization is used to approximate the nonlinearity term. Our analysis relies on three tools: a new discrete fractional Grönwall inequality, a global consistency analysis and a discrete $H^2$ energy method. A sharp error estimate reflecting the regularity of solution is established without any restriction on the relative diameters of the temporal and spatial mesh sizes. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and the sharpness of error analysis.

Hong-lin Liao, Xiaoming Wang, Xuping Wang et al.

High-order adaptive time-stepping algorithms are of significant practical value and theoretical interest for accelerating long-time fluid-flow simulations and resolving complex dynamical behaviors. While several high-order implicit-explicit schemes have been proposed in the literature, their long-time stability properties remain largely unexplored. We develop a family of long-time stable implicit-explicit Runge-Kutta (IERK) methods, up to fourth-order temporal accuracy, for the two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in vorticity-stream function formulation. By combining a convolution-type Hölder inequality with a damping-type multistage Grönwall inequality, we establish a unified analytical framework that proves long-time stability in both the $L^2$ and $H^1$ norms. A key component of the analysis is a mathematical-induction argument that ensures stage-wise boundedness of the vorticity in the $H^δ$ norm for some $δ>0$. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to establish large-time stability results for high-order IERK algorithms for the two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Our IERK schemes employ stiffly accurate diagonally implicit Runge-Kutta approximations for the linear diffusive term together with explicit Runge-Kutta approximations for the nonlinear advection term. By exploiting the specific structure of the Navier-Stokes model, we derive a reduced set of order conditions-requiring only 5 and 11 conditions for the third- and fourth-order methods, respectively, in contrast to the classical 6 and 18-allowing the construction of a parameterized family of efficient schemes. These IERK methods are particularly well suited for adaptive time-stepping, as they permit significantly enlarged step sizes in actual computations.

Hong-lin Liao, Chaoyu Quan, Tao Tang et al.

The rigorous stability analysis of high-order implicit-explicit multistep (IEMS) methods for nonlinear parabolic equations by using discrete energy arguments is a long standing open issue due to their non-A-stable property. A novel semi-generating function approach combined with the global discrete energy analysis is suggested to the stability and convergence analysis of general IEMS methods for nonlinear parabolic equations. Inspired from the Grenander-Szegö theorem for the Toeplitz matrix, the semi-generating function approach is used to handle the three groups of discrete coefficients via three complex rational polynomials on the unit circle. A unified theoretical framework is then presented to establish the unconditional stability of IEMS methods if the minimum eigenvalue of composite convolution kernels for the implicit part is properly large and the spectral norm bound of composite convolution kernels for the explicit part is properly small. An indicator, called implicit-explicit controllability intensity, is then introduced to evaluate the degree of controllability of implicit part over explicit part. Some of existing IEMS methods, up to the fifth-order time accuracy, are revisited and compared by computing the associated implicit-explicit controllability intensities such that one can choose certain IEMS method or proper parameter to maintain the unconditional stability for a specific nonlinear parabolic model. We also propose a new parameterized class of IEMS methods, up to the eighth-order time accuracy, which satisfy the priori settings of our theory and have a large value of the implicit-explicit controllability intensity by choosing proper parameter so that they would be well suited for a wide class of nonlinear parabolic problems.

Hong-lin Liao, William McLean, Jiwei Zhang

Stability and convergence of a time-weighted discrete scheme with nonuniform time steps are established for linear reaction-subdiffusion equations. The Caupto derivative is approximated at an offset point by using linear and quadratic polynomial interpolation. Our analysis relies on two tools: a discrete fractional Grönwall inequality and the global consistency analysis. The new consistency analysis makes use of an interpolation error formula for quadratic polynomials, which leads to a convolution-type bound for the local truncation error. To exploit these two tools, some theoretical properties of the discrete kernels in the numerical Caputo formula are crucial and we investigate them intensively in the nonuniform setting. Taking the initial singularity of the solution into account, we obtain a sharp error estimate on nonuniform time meshes. The fully discrete scheme generates a second-order accurate solution on the graded mesh provided a proper grading parameter is employed. An example is presented to show the sharpness of our analysis.