A trace finite element method for PDEs on evolving surfaces
This work provides a numerical method for solving PDEs on evolving surfaces that can handle topological changes and geometric singularities, which is important for applications in fluid dynamics, biology, and materials science.
The paper proposes a trace finite element method combined with a fast marching method for solving PDEs on evolving surfaces, achieving second-order accuracy in space and time without requiring extension off the surface or a fitted mesh, and demonstrating convergence and handling of topological changes through numerical experiments.
In this paper, we propose an approach for solving PDEs on evolving surfaces using a combination of the trace finite element method and a fast marching method. The numerical approach is based on the Eulerian description of the surface problem and employs a time-independent background mesh that is not fitted to the surface. The surface and its evolution may be given implicitly, for example, by the level set method. Extension of the PDE off the surface is not required. The method introduced in this paper naturally allows a surface to undergo topological changes and experience local geometric singularities. In the simplest setting, the numerical method is second order accurate in space and time. Higher order variants are feasible, but not studied in this paper. We show results of several numerical experiments, which demonstrate the convergence properties of the method and its ability to handle the case of the surface with topological changes.