Stefano Berrone

Stefano Berrone, Andrea Borio, Francesca Marcon

We introduce and analyse the first order Enlarged Enhancement Virtual Element Method (E$^2$VEM) for the Poisson problem. The method allows the definition of bilinear forms that do not require a stabilization term, thanks to the exploitation of higher order polynomial projections that are made computable by suitably enlarging the enhancement (from which comes the prefix of the name E$^2$) property of local virtual spaces. The polynomial degree of local projections is chosen based on the number of vertices of each polygon. We provide a proof of well-posedness and optimal order a priori error estimates. Numerical tests on convex and non-convex polygonal meshes confirm the criterium for well-posedness and the theoretical convergence rates.

Stefano Berrone, Karol L. Cascavita, Enrique Delgado Ávila et al.

In this paper, we investigate a Smagorinsky model in a virtual element framework to simulate convection-dominated Navier-Stokes equations. We conduct a two-dimensional numerical investigation to assess the performance of the general order virtual element approximation in this context. First, we examine numerically the convergence of the method with respect to the meshsize to certify the novel virtual element numerical discretization, which includes, for the first time, a discretization of the Smagorinsky term. Moreover, we present a numerical study of a lid-driven cavity for different Reynolds numbers (up to 10000) and meshes (uniform, anisotropic, and isotropic with hanging nodes). The results highlight the main advantage of using the virtual elements method in this context: the isotropic refinement with hanging nodes enhances the accuracy of the solution compared to the anisotropic mesh, uses fewer degrees of freedom with respect to the uniform mesh, and yields the most stable behavior in terms of convergence of the Newton solver.

Stefano Berrone, Francesca Marcon, Gioana Teora

Rainfall-induced landslides are governed by the interaction between subsurface water flow and soil mechanics, requiring robust numerical methods for the simulation of variably saturated porous media. In this work, we consider a semi-coupled hydro-mechanical model based on Richards' equation and linear elasticity and propose a numerical framework based on a stabilization-free Virtual Element Method for its spatial discretization. The proposed approach naturally accommodates general polygonal meshes while avoiding problem-dependent stabilization terms, whose design may become challenging when heterogeneous and strongly non-linear coefficients are involved. The approach is combined with a mass-lumping technique to improve stability in the treatment of the storage term and with Nitsche's method to weakly impose seepage-face and infiltration boundary conditions, allowing for the automatic switching between Neumann and Dirichlet conditions. Time integration is performed using the backward Euler scheme, while non-linearities are handled through a Picard iteration. Numerical experiments demonstrate the stability and robustness of the proposed methodology and show its effectiveness in simulating rainfall infiltration and evaluating slope stability through the Local Factor of Safety.

Stefano Berrone, Davide Oberto

In the present paper a new data-driven model is proposed to close and increase accuracy of RANS equations. The divergence of the Reynolds Stress Tensor (RST) is obtained through a Neural Network (NN) whose architecture and input choice guarantee both Galilean and coordinates-frame rotation. The former derives from the input choice of the NN while the latter from the expansion of the divergence of the RST into a vector basis. This approach has been widely used for data-driven models for the anisotropic RST or the RST discrepancies and it is here proposed for the divergence of the RST. Hence, a constitutive relation of the divergence of the RST from mean quantities is proposed to obtain such expansion. Moreover, once the proposed data-driven approach is trained, there is no need to run any classic turbulence model to close the equations. The well-known tests of flow in a square duct and over periodic hills are used to show advantages of the present method compared to standard turbulence models.

Stefano Berrone, Claudio Canuto, Moreno Pintore

In this work we analyze how quadrature rules of different precisions and piecewise polynomial test functions of different degrees affect the convergence rate of Variational Physics Informed Neural Networks (VPINN) with respect to mesh refinement, while solving elliptic boundary-value problems. Using a Petrov-Galerkin framework relying on an inf-sup condition, we derive an a priori error estimate in the energy norm between the exact solution and a suitable high-order piecewise interpolant of a computed neural network. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical predictions and highlight the importance of the inf-sup condition. Our results suggest, somehow counterintuitively, that for smooth solutions the best strategy to achieve a high decay rate of the error consists in choosing test functions of the lowest polynomial degree, while using quadrature formulas of suitably high precision.

Stefano Berrone, Andrea Bonito, Rob Stevenson et al.

We consider a Fictitious Domain formulation of an elliptic partial differential equation and approximate the resulting saddle-point system using an inexact preconditioned Uzawa iterative algorithm. Each iteration entails the approximation of an elliptic problems performed using adaptive finite element methods. We prove that the overall method converges with the best possible rate and illustrate numerically our theoretical findings.