Yanqiu Wang

Lin Mu, Junping Wang, Yanqiu Wang et al.

The weak Galerkin finite element method is a novel numerical method that was first proposed and analyzed by Wang and Ye for general second order elliptic problems on triangular meshes. The goal of this paper is to conduct a computational investigation for the weak Galerkin method for various model problems with more general finite element partitions. The numerical results confirm the theory established by Wang and Ye. The results also indicate that the weak Galerkin method is efficient, robust, and reliable in scientific computing.

Lin Mu, Junping Wang, Yanqiu Wang et al.

This article introduces and analyzes a weak Galerkin mixed finite element method for solving the biharmonic equation. The weak Galerkin method, first introduced by two of the authors (J. Wang and X. Ye) in an earlier publication for second order elliptic problems, is based on the concept of discrete weak gradients. The method allows the use of completely discrete finite element functions on partitions of arbitrary polygon or polyhedron. In this article, the idea of weak Galerkin method is applied to discretize the Ciarlet-Raviart mixed formulation for the biharmonic equation. In particular, an a priori error estimation is given for the corresponding finite element approximations. The error analysis essentially follows the framework of Babuska, Osborn, and Pitkaranta and uses specially designed mesh-dependent norms. The proof is technically tedious due to the discontinuous nature of the weak Galerkin finite element functions. Some computational results are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the method.

Long Chen, Junping Wang, Yanqiu Wang et al.

In this paper, the authors constructed an auxiliary space multigrid preconditioner for the weak Galerkin finite element method for second-order diffusion equations, discretized on simplicial 2D or 3D meshes. The idea of the auxiliary space multigrid preconditioner is to use an auxiliary space as a "coarse" space in the multigrid algorithm, where the discrete problem in the auxiliary space can be easily solved by an existing solver. In this construction, the authors conveniently use the $H^1$ conforming piecewise linear finite element space as an auxiliary space. The main technical difficulty is to build the connection between the weak Galerkin discrete space and the $H^1$ conforming piecewise linear finite element space. The authors successfully constructed such an auxiliary space multigrid preconditioner for the weak Galerkin method, as well as a reduced system of the weak Galerkin method involving only the degrees of freedom on edges/faces. The preconditioned systems are proved to have condition numbers independent of the mesh size. Numerical experiments are conducted to support the theoretical results.

Wenbin Chen, Fang Wang, Yanqiu Wang

A family of weak Galerkin finite element discretization is developed for solving the coupled Darcy-Stokes equation. The equation in consideration admits the Beaver-Joseph-Saffman condition on the interface. By using the weak Galerkin approach, in the discrete space we are able to impose the normal continuity of velocity explicitly. Or in other words, strong coupling is achieved in the discrete space. Different choices of weak Galerkin finite element spaces are discussed, and error estimates are given.

Mu Lin, Junping Wang, Yanqiu Wang et al.

This paper focuses on interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin methods for second order elliptic equations on very general polygonal or polyhedral meshes. The mesh can be composed of any polygons or polyhedra which satisfies certain shape regularity conditions characterized in a recent paper by two of the authors in [17]. Such general meshes have important application in computational sciences. The usual $H^1$ conforming finite element methods on such meshes are either very complicated or impossible to implement in practical computation. However, the interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method provides a simple and effective alternative approach which is efficient and robust. This article provides a mathematical foundation for the use of interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin methods in general meshes.

Wenbin Chen, Yanqiu Wang

We construct H(curl) and H(div) conforming finite elements on convex polygons and polyhedra with minimal possible degrees of freedom, i.e., the number of degrees of freedom is equal to the number of edges or faces of the polygon/polyhedron. The construction is based on generalized barycentric coordinates and the Whitney forms. In 3D, it currently requires the faces of the polyhedron be either triangles or parallelograms. Formula for computing basis functions are given. The finite elements satisfy discrete de Rham sequences in analogy to the well-known ones on simplices. Moreover, they reproduce existing H(curl)-H(div) elements on simplices, parallelograms, parallelepipeds, pyramids and triangular prisms. Approximation property of the constructed elements is also analyzed, by showing that the lowest-order simplicial Nedelec- Raviart-Thomas elements are subsets of the constructed elements on arbitrary polygons and certain polyhedra.

Pengjie Tian, Yanqiu Wang

The gradient bounds of generalized barycentric coordinates play an essential role in the $H^1$ norm approximation error estimate of generalized barycentric interpolations. Similarly, the $H^k$ norm, $k>1$, estimate needs upper bounds of high-order derivatives, which are not available in the literature. In this paper, we derive such upper bounds for the Wachspress generalized barycentric coordinates on simple convex $d$-dimensional polytopes, $d\ge 1$. The result can be used to prove optimal convergence for Wachspress-based polytopal finite element approximation of, for example, fourth-order elliptic equations. Another contribution of this paper is to compare various shape-regularity conditions for simple convex polytopes, and to clarify their relations using knowledge from convex geometry.

Wenbin Chen, Zhenhua Chen, Jin Cheng et al.

This paper concerns new continuum phenomenological model for epitaxial thin film growth with three different forms of the Ehrlich-Schwoebel current. Two of these forms were first proposed by Politi and Villain [1996] and then studied by Evans, Thiel and Bartelt [2006]. The other one is completely new. Following the techniques used in Li and Liu [2003], we present rigorous analysis of the well-posedness, regularity and time stability for the new model. We also studied both the global and the local behavior of the surface roughness in the growth process. The new model differs from other known models in that it features a linear convex part and a nonlinear concave part, and thus by using a convex-concave time splitting scheme, one can naturally build unconditionally stable semi-implicit numerical discretizations with linear implicit parts, which is much easier to implement than conventional models requiring nonlinear implicit parts. Despite this fundamental difference in the model, numerical experiments show that the nonlinear morphological instability of the new model agrees well with results of other models published in Li and Liu [2003], which indicates that the new model correctly captures the essential morphological states in the thin film growth process.

Weizhang Huang, Yanqiu Wang

A weak Galerkin discretization of the boundary value problem of a general anisotropic diffusion problem is studied for preservation of the maximum principle. It is shown that the direct application of the $M$-matrix theory to the stiffness matrix of the weak Galerkin discretization leads to a strong mesh condition requiring all of the mesh dihedral angles to be strictly acute (a constant-order away from 90 degrees). To avoid this difficulty, a reduced system is considered and shown to satisfy the discrete maximum principle under weaker mesh conditions. The discrete maximum principle is then established for the full weak Galerkin approximation using the relations between the degrees of freedom located on elements and edges. Sufficient mesh conditions for both piecewise constant and general anisotropic diffusion matrices are obtained. These conditions provide a guideline for practical mesh generation for preservation of the maximum principle. Numerical examples are presented.