Michael Nestler

Michael Nestler, Ingo Nitschke, Axel Voigt

We derive a Cartesian componentwise description of the covariant derivative of tangential tensor fields of any degree on general manifolds. This allows to reformulate any vector- and tensor-valued surface PDE in a form suitable to be solved by established tools for scalar-valued surface PDEs. We consider piecewise linear Lagrange surface finite elements on triangulated surfaces and validate the approach by a vector- and a tensor-valued surface Helmholtz problem on an ellipsoid. We experimentally show optimal (linear) order of convergence for these problems. The full functionality is demonstrated by solving a surface Landau-de Gennes problem on the Stanford bunny. All tools required to apply this approach to other vector- and tensor-valued surface PDEs are provided.

Michael Nestler, Ingo Nitschke, Simon Praetorius et al.

We consider the numerical investigation of surface bound orientational order using unit tangential vector fields by means of a gradient-flow equation of a weak surface Frank-Oseen energy. The energy is composed of intrinsic and extrinsic contributions, as well as a penalization term to enforce the unity of the vector field. Four different numerical discretizations, namely a discrete exterior calculus approach, a method based on vector spherical harmonics, a surface finite-element method, and an approach utilizing an implicit surface description, the diffuse interface method, are described and compared with each other for surfaces with Euler characteristic 2. We demonstrate the influence of geometric properties on realizations of the Poincare-Hopf theorem and show examples where the energy is decreased by introducing additional orientational defects.