Dirichlet-Neumann waveform relaxation for heterogeneous heat equations: continuous and time discrete L2 analysis

Abstract

We consider two coupled linear heat equations on different spatial domains that interact through a lower dimensional interface. This models conjugate heat transfer. The problem is solved using Dirichlet-Neumann waveform relaxation. This allows us to couple separate codes for the subproblems, a so-called partitioned approach. Our overall goal is to develop more efficient partitioned methods, and to this end, we want reliable error estimates. We use an exponentially weighted Fourier technique to derive new error estimates in L2 for finite time T in both continuous and time discrete settings. We identify an optimized relaxation parameter that guarantees superlinear convergence. Our new continuous estimate predicts linear convergence when T is large, and superlinear when T is small. For large T, our new time discrete estimate closely mirrors its continuous counterpart, whereas for small T, superlinear convergence in the time discrete case requires small time step dt. We also show that convergence is fast when the contrast is large, provided that the small physical parameter domain (e.g. air) is using the Dirichlet transmission condition, and the large physical parameter domain (e.g. steel) is using the Neumann transmission condition in the Dirichlet-Neumann waveform relaxation method. Our numerical experiments confirm all these findings.