arXiv subjects

Elie Bretin

Publications and source records attributed to Elie Bretin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

A Cahn--Hilliard--Willmore phase field model for non-oriented interfaces

We investigate a new phase field model for representing non-oriented interfaces, approximating their area and simulating their area-minimizing flow. Our contribution is related to the approach proposed in arXiv:2105.09627 that involves ad hoc neural networks. We show here that, instead of neural networks, similar results can be obtained using a more standard variational approach that combines a Cahn-Hilliard-type functional involving an appropriate non-smooth potential and a Willmore-type stabilization energy. We give a $Γ$-convergence analysis of this phase field model in dimension $1$ and, for radially symmetric functions, in arbitrary dimension. We also propose a simple numerical scheme to approximate its $L^2$-gradient flow. We illustrate numerically that the new flow approximates fairly well the mean curvature flow of codimension $1$ or $2$ interfaces in dimensions $2$ and $3$.

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arXiv2025

Phase field approximation for Plateau's problem: a curve geodesic distance penalty approach

This work focuses on a phase field approximation of Plateau's problem. Inspired by Reifenberg's point of view, we introduce a model that combines the Ambrosio-Torterelli energy with a geodesic distance term, which can be considered as a generalization of the approach developed by Bonnivard, Lemenant and Santambrogio to approximate solutions to Steiner's problem. First, we present a Gamma-convergence analysis of this model in the simple case of a single curve located on the edge of a cylinder. In a numerical section, we detail the numerical optimisation schemes used to minimize this energy for numerous examples, for which good approximations of solutions to Plateau's problem are found.

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arXiv2024

A penalized Allen-Cahn equation for the mean curvature flow of thin structures

This paper addresses the approximation of the mean curvature flow of thin structures for which classical phase field methods are not suitable. By thin structures, we mean surfaces that are not domain boundaries, typically higher codimension objects such as 1D curves in 3D, i.e. filaments, or soap films spanning a boundary curve. To approximate the mean curvature flow of such surfaces, we consider a small thickening and we apply to the thickened set an evolution model that combines the classical Allen-Cahn equation with a penalty term that takes on larger values around the skeleton of the set. The novelty of our approach lies in the definition of this penalty term that guarantees a minimal thickness of the evolving set and prevents it from disappearing unexpectedly. We prove a few theoretical properties of our model, provide examples showing the connection with higher codimension mean curvature flow, and introduce a quasi-static numerical scheme with explicit integration of the penalty term. We illustrate the numerical efficiency of the model with accurate approximations of filament structures evolving by mean curvature flow, and we also illustrate its ability to find complex 3D approximations of solutions to the Steiner problem or the Plateau problem.

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arXiv2023

A mobility-SAV approach for a Cahn-Hilliard equation with degenerate mobilities

A novel numerical strategy is introduced for computing approximations of solutions to a Cahn-Hilliard model with degenerate mobilities. This model has recently been introduced as a second-order phase-field approximation for surface diffusion flows. Its numerical discretization is challenging due to the degeneracy of the mobilities, which generally requires an implicit treatment to avoid stability issues at the price of increased complexity costs. To mitigate this drawback, we consider new first- and second-order Scalar Auxiliary Variable (SAV) schemes that, differently from existing approaches, focus on the relaxation of the mobility, rather than the Cahn-Hilliard energy. These schemes are introduced and analysed theoretically in the general context of gradient flows and then specialised for the Cahn-Hilliard equation with mobilities. Various numerical experiments are conducted to highlight the advantages of these new schemes in terms of accuracy, effectiveness and computational cost.

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arXiv2023

A multiphase Cahn-Hilliard system with mobilities and the numerical simulation of dewetting

We propose in this paper a new multiphase Cahn-Hilliard model with doubly degenerate mobilities. We prove by a formal asymptotic analysis that it approximates with second order accuracy the multiphase surface diffusion flow with mobility coefficients and surface tensions. To illustrate that it lends itself well to numerical approximation, we propose a simple and effective numerical scheme together with a very compact Matlab implementation. We provide the results of various numerical experiments to show the influence of mobility and surface tension coefficients. Thanks to its second order accuracy and its good suitability for numerical implementation, our model is very handy for tackling notably difficult surface diffusion problems. In particular, we show that it can be used very effectively to simulate numerically the dewetting of thin liquid tubes on arbitrary solid supports without requiring nonlinear boundary conditions.

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arXiv2022

Approximation of multiphase mean curvature flows with arbitrary nonnegative mobilities

This paper is devoted to the robust approximation with a variational phase field approach of multiphase mean curvature flows with possibly highly contrasted mobilities. The case of harmonically additive mobilities has been addressed recently using a suitable metric to define the gradient flow of the phase field approximate energy. We generalize this approach to arbitrary nonnegative mobilities using a decomposition as sums of harmonically additive mobilities. We establish the consistency of the resulting method by analyzing the sharp interface limit of the flow: a formal expansion of the phase field shows that the method is of second order. We propose a simple numerical scheme to approximate the solutions to our new model. Finally, we present some numerical experiments in dimensions 2 and 3 that illustrate the interest and effectiveness of our approach, in particular for approximating flows in which the mobility of some phases is zero.

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arXiv2022

Learning phase field mean curvature flows with neural networks

We introduce in this paper new and very effective numerical methods based on neural networks for the approximation of the mean curvature flow of either oriented or non-orientable surfaces. To learn the correct interface evolution law, our neural networks are trained on phase field representations of exact evolving interfaces. The structures of the networks draw inspiration from splitting schemes used for the discretization of the Allen-Cahn equation. But when the latter approximate the mean curvature motion of oriented interfaces only, the approach we propose extends very naturally to the non-orientable case. Through a variety of examples, we show that our networks, trained only on flows of smooth and simplistic interfaces, generalize very well to more complex interfaces, either oriented or non-orientable, and possibly with singularities. Furthermore, they can be coupled easily with additional constraints which opens the way to various applications illustrating the flexibility and effectiveness of our approach: mean curvature flows with volume constraint, multiphase mean curvature flows, numerical approximation of Steiner trees or minimal surfaces.

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arXiv2021

Stability for finite element discretization of some elliptic inverse parameter problems from internal data -- application to elastography

In this article, we provide stability estimates for the finite element discretization of a class of inverse parameter problems of the form $-\nabla\cdot(μS) = \g f$ in a domain $Ω$ of $\R^d$. Here $μ$ is the unknown parameter to recover, the matrix valued function $S$ and the vector valued distribution $\g f$ are known. As uniqueness is not guaranteed in general for this problem, we prove a Lipschitz-type stability estimate in an hyperplane of $L^2(Ω)$. This stability is obtained through an adaptation of the so-called discrete \emph{inf-sup} constant or LBB constant to a large class of first-order differential operators. We then provide a simple and original discretization based on hexagonal finite element that satisfies the discrete stability condition and shows corresponding numerical reconstructions. The obtained algebraic inversion method is efficient as it does not require any iterative solving of the forward problem and is very general as it does not require any smoothness hypothesis for the data nor any additional information at the boundary.

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arXiv2020

Approximation of surface diffusion flow: a second order variational Cahn--Hilliard model with degenerate mobilities

This paper tackles the approximation of surface diffusion flow using a Cahn--Hilliard-type model. We introduce and analyze a new second order variational phase field model which associates the classical Cahn--Hilliard energy with two degenerate mobilities. This association allows to gain an order of approximation of the sharp limit. In a second part, we propose some simple and efficient numerical schemes to approximate the solutions, and we provide numerical 2D and 3D experiments that illustrate the interest of our model in comparison with other Cahn--Hilliard models.

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arXiv2018

How locating sensors in thermo-acoustic tomography?

Thermo-acoustic tomography is a non-invasive medical imaging technique, constituting a precise and cheap alternative to X-imaging. The principle is to excite a body to reconstruct with a pulse inducing an inhomogeneous heating and therefore expansion of tissues. This creates an acoustic wave pressure which is measured with sensors. The reconstruction of heterogeneities inside the body can be then performed by solving an inverse problem, knowing measurements of the acoustic waves outside the body. As the intensity of the measured pressure is expected to be small, a challenging problem consists in locating the sensors in a adequate way. This paper is devoted to the determination of an optimal sensors location to achieve this reconstruction. We first introduce a model involving a least square functional standing for an observation of the pressure for a first series of measures by sensors, and an observability-like constant functional describing for the quality of reconstruction. Then, we determine an appropriate location of sensors for two series of measures, in two steps: first, we reconstruct possible initial data by solving a worst-case design like problem. Second, we determine from the knowledge of these initial conditions the optimal location of sensors for observing in the best way the corresponding solution of the wave equation. Far from providing an intrinsic solution to the general issue of locating sensors, solving this problem allows to determine a new sensors location improving the quality of reconstruction before getting a new series of measures. We perform a mathematical analysis of this model: in particular we investigate existence issues and introduce a numerical algorithm to solve it. Eventually, several numerical 2D simulations illustrate our approach.

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arXiv2018

A direct linear inversion for discontinuous elastic parameters recovery from internal displacement information only

The aim of this paper is to present and analyze a new direct method for solving the linear elasticity inverse problem. Given measurements of some displacement fields inside a medium, we show that a stable reconstruction of elastic parameters is possible, even for discontinuous parameters and without boundary information. We provide a general approach based on the weak definition of the stiffness-to-force operator which conduces to see the problem as a linear system. We prove that in the case of shear modulus reconstruction, we have an $L^2$-stability with only one measurement under minimal smoothness assumptions. This stability result is obtained though the proof that the linear operator to invert has closed range. We then describe a direct discretization which provides stable reconstructions of both isotropic and anisotropic stiffness tensors.

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arXiv2017

Multiphase mean curvature flows with high mobility contrasts: a phase-field approach, with applications to nanowires

The structure of many multiphase systems is governed by an energy that penalizes the area of interfaces between phases weighted by surface tension coefficients. However, interface evolution laws depend also on interface mobility coefficients. Having in mind some applications where highly contrasted or even degenerate mobilities are involved, for which classical phase field models are inapplicable, we propose a new effective phase field approach to approximate multiphase mean curvature flows with mobilities. The key aspect of our model is to incorporate the mobilities not in the phase field energy (which is conventionally the case) but in the metric which determines the gradient flow. We show the consistency of such approach by a formal analysis of the sharp interface limit. We also propose an efficient numerical scheme which allows us to illustrate the advantages of the model on various examples, as the wetting of droplets on solid surfaces or the simulation of nanowires growth generated by the so-called vapor-liquid-solid method.

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arXiv2014

Mathematical modeling in full-field optical coherence elastography

We provide a mathematical analysis of and a numerical framework for full-field optical coherence elastography, which has unique features including micron-scale resolution, real-time processing, and non-invasive imaging. We develop a novel algorithm for transforming volumetric optical images before and after the mechanical solicitation of a sample with sub-cellular resolution into quantitative shear modulus distributions. This has the potential to improve sensitivities and specificities in the biological and clinical applications of optical coherence tomography.

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arXiv2013

Phase-field approximations of the Willmore functional and flow

We discuss in this paper phase-field approximations of the Willmore functional and the associated L2-flow. After recollecting known results on the approximation of the Willmore energy and its L1-relaxation, we derive the expression of the flows associated with various approximations, and we show their behavior by formal arguments based on matched asymptotic expansions. We introduce an accurate numerical scheme, whose local convergence can be proved, to describe with more details the behavior of two flows, the classical and the flow associated with an approximation model due to Mugnai. We propose a series of numerical simulations in 2D and 3D to illustrate their behavior in both smooth and singular situations.

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arXiv2012

Localization, Stability, and Resolution of Topological Derivative Based Imaging Functionals in Elasticity

The focus of this work is on rigorous mathematical analysis of the topological derivative based detection algorithms for the localization of an elastic inclusion of vanishing characteristic size. A filtered quadratic misfit is considered and the performance of the topological derivative imaging functional resulting therefrom is analyzed. Our analysis reveals that the imaging functional may not attain its maximum at the location of the inclusion. Moreover, the resolution of the image is below the diffraction limit. Both phenomena are due to the coupling of pressure and shear waves propagating with different wave speeds and polarization directions. A novel imaging functional based on the weighted Helmholtz decomposition of the topological derivative is, therefore, introduced. It is thereby substantiated that the maximum of the imaging functional is attained at the location of the inclusion and the resolution is enhanced and it proves to be the diffraction limit. Finally, we investigate the stability of the proposed imaging functionals with respect to measurement and medium noises.

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arXiv2011

Some Anisotropic Viscoelastic Green Functions

In this paper, we compute the closed form expressions of elastody- namic Green functions for three different viscoelastic media with simple type of anisotropy. We follow Burridge et al. [Proc. Royal Soc. of London. 440(1910): (1993)] to express unknown Green function in terms of three scalar functions $ϕ_i$, by using the spectral decomposition of the Christoffel tensor associated with the medium. The problem of computing Green function is, thus reduced to the resolution of three scalar wave equations satisfied by $ϕ_i$, and subsequent equations with $ϕ_i$ as source terms. To describe viscosity effects, we choose an empirical power law model which becomes well known Voigt model for quadratic frequency losses.

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arXiv2010

Transient Anomaly Imaging in Visco-Elastic Media Obeying a Frequency Power-Law

In this work, we consider the problem of reconstructing a small anomaly in a viscoelastic medium from wave-field measurements. We choose Szabo's model to describe the viscoelastic properties of the medium. Expressing the ideal elastic field without any viscous effect in terms of the measured field in a viscous medium, we generalize the imaging procedures, such as time reversal, Kirchhoff Imaging and Back propagation, for an ideal medium to detect an anomaly in a visco-elastic medium from wave-field measurements.

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arXiv2010

Consistency result for a non monotone scheme for anisotropic mean curvature flow

In this paper, we propose a new scheme for anisotropic motion by mean curvature in $\R^d$. The scheme consists of a phase-field approximation of the motion, where the nonlinear diffusive terms in the corresponding anisotropic Allen-Cahn equation are linearized in the Fourier space. In real space, this corresponds to the convolution with a kernel of the form \[ K_{ϕ,t}(x) = \F^{-1}\left[ e^{-4π^2 t ϕ^o(ξ)} \right](x). \] We analyse the resulting scheme, following the work of Ishii-Pires-Souganidis on the convergence of the Bence-Merriman-Osher algorithm for isotropic motion by mean curvature. The main difficulty here, is that the kernel $K_{ϕ,t}$ is not positive and that its moments of order 2 are not in $L^1(\R^d)$. Still, we can show that in one sense the scheme is consistent with the anisotropic mean curvature flow.

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