arXiv subjects

Herbert Egger

Publications and source records attributed to Herbert Egger.

89 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

A robust conservative mixed finite element method for compressible flow on pipe networks

We consider the numerical approximation of compressible flow in a pipe network. Appropriate coupling conditions are formulated that allow us to derive a variational characterization of solutions and to prove global balance laws for the conservation of mass and energy on the whole network. This variational principle, which is the basis of our further investigations, is amenable to a conforming Galerkin approximation by mixed finite elements. The resulting semi-discrete problems are well-posed and automatically inherit the global conservation laws for mass and energy from the continuous level. We also consider the subsequent discretization in time by a problem adapted implicit time stepping scheme which leads to conservation of mass and a slight dissipation of energy of the full discretization. The well-posedness of the fully discrete scheme is established and a fixed-point iteration is proposed for the solution of the nonlinear systems arising in every single time step. Some computational results are presented for illustration of our theoretical findings and for demonstration of the robustness and accuracy of the new method.

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arXiv2016

Super-convergence and post-processing for mixed finite element approximations of the wave equation

We consider the numerical approximation of acoustic wave propagation problems by mixed BDM(k+1)-P(k) finite elements on unstructured meshes. Optimal convergence of the discrete velocity and super-convergence of the pressure by one order are established. Based on these results, we propose a post-processing strategy that allows us to construct an improved pressure approximation from the numerical solution. Corresponding results are well-known for mixed finite element approximations of elliptic problems and we extend these analyses here to the hyperbolic problem under consideration. We also consider the subsequent time discretization by the Crank-Nicolson method and show that the analysis and the post-processing strategy can be generalized to the fully discrete schemes. Our proofs do not rely on duality arguments or inverse inequalities and the results therefore apply also for non-convex domains and non-uniform meshes.

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arXiv2016

Parameter identification in a semilinear hyperbolic system

We consider the identification of a nonlinear friction law in a one-dimensional damped wave equation from additional boundary measurements. Well-posedness of the governing semilinear hyperbolic system is established via semigroup theory and contraction arguments. We then investigte the inverse problem of recovering the unknown nonlinear damping law from additional boundary measurements of the pressure drop along the pipe. This coefficient inverse problem is shown to be ill-posed and a variational regularization method is considered for its stable solution. We prove existence of minimizers for the Tikhonov functional and discuss the convergence of the regularized solutions under an approximate source condition. The meaning of this condition and some arguments for its validity are discussed in detail and numerical results are presented for illustration of the theoretical findings.

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arXiv2016

Damped wave systems on networks: Exponential stability and uniform approximations

We consider a damped linear hyperbolic system modelling the propagation of pressure waves in a network of pipes. Well-posedness is established via semi-group theory and the existence of a unique steady state is proven in the absence of driving forces. Under mild assumptions on the network topology and the model parameters, we show exponential stability and convergence to equilibrium. This generalizes related results for single pipes and multi-dimensional domains to the network context. Our proof of the exponential stability estimate is based on a variational formulation of the problem, some graph theoretic results, and appropriate energy estimates. The main arguments are rather generic and can be applied also for the analysis of Galerkin approximations. Uniform exponential stability can be guaranteed for the resulting semi-discretizations under mild compatibility conditions on the approximation spaces. A particular realization by mixed finite elements is discussed and the theoretical results are illustrated by numerical tests in which also bounds for the decay rate are investigated.

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arXiv2015

A class of Galerkin schemes for time-dependent radiative transfer

The numerical solution of time-dependent radiative transfer problems is challenging, both, due to the high dimension as well as the anisotropic structure of the underlying integro-partial differential equation. In this paper we propose a general framework for designing numerical methods for time-dependent radiative transfer based on a Galerkin discretization in space and angle combined with appropriate time stepping schemes. This allows us to systematically incorporate boundary conditions and to preserve basic properties like exponential stability and decay to equilibrium also on the discrete level. We present the basic a-priori error analysis and provide abstract error estimates that cover a wide class of methods. The starting point for our considerations is to rewrite the radiative transfer problem as a system of evolution equations which has a similar structure like first order hyperbolic systems in acoustics or electrodynamics. This analogy allows us to generalize the main arguments of the numerical analysis for such applications to the radiative transfer problem under investigation. We also discuss a particular discretization scheme based on a truncated spherical harmonic expansion in angle, a finite element discretization in space, and the implicit Euler method in time. The performance of the resulting mixed PN-finite element time stepping scheme is demonstrated by computational results.

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arXiv2015

Uniform exponential stability of Galerkin approximations for damped wave systems

We consider the numerical approximation of linear damped wave systems by Galerkin approximations in space and appropriate time-stepping schemes. Based on a dissipation estimate for a modified energy, we prove exponential decay of the physical energy on the continuous level provided that the damping is effective everywhere in the domain. The methods of proof allow us to analyze also a class of Galerkin approximations based on a mixed variational formulation of the problem. Uniform exponential stability can be guaranteed for these approximations under a general compatibility condition on the discretization spaces. As a particular example, we discuss the discretization by mixed finite element methods for which we obtain convergence and uniform error estimates under minimal regularity assumptions. We also prove unconditional and uniform exponential stability for the time discretization by certain one-step methods. The validity of the theoretical results as well as the necessity of some of the conditions required for our analysis are demonstrated in numerical tests.

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arXiv2015

Analysis and numerical solution of coupled volume-surface reaction-diffusion systems with application to cell biology

We consider the numerical solution of coupled volume-surface reaction-diffusion systems having a detailed balance equilibrium. Based on the conservation of mass, an appropriate quadratic entropy functional is identified and an entropy-entropy dissipation inequality is proven. This allows us to show exponential convergence to equilibrium by the entropy method. We then investigate the discretization of the system by a finite element method and an implicit time stepping scheme including the domain approximation by polyhedral meshes. Mass conservation and exponential convergence to equilibrium are established on the discrete level by arguments similar to those on the continuous level and we obtain estimates of optimal order for the discretization error which hold uniformly in time. Some numerical tests are presented to illustrate these theoretical results. The analysis and the numerical approximation are discussed in detail for a simple model problem. The basic arguments however apply also in a more general context. This is demonstrated by investigation of a particular volume-surface reaction-diffusion system arising as a mathematical model for asymmetric stem cell division.

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arXiv2015

Energy-norm error estimates for finite element discretization of parabolic problems

We consider the discretization of parabolic initial boundary value problems by finite element methods in space and a Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme. Order optimal a-priori error estimates are derived in an energy-norm under natural smoothness assumptions on the solution and without artificial regularity conditions on the parameters and the domain. The key steps in our analysis are the careful treatment of time derivatives in the H(-1)-norm and the the use of an L2-projection in the error splitting instead of the Ritz projector. This allows us to restore the optimality of the estimates with respect to smoothness assumptions on the solution and to avoid artificial regularity requirements for the problem, usually needed for the analysis of the Ritz projector, which limit the applicability of previous work. The wider applicability of our results is illustrated for two irregular problems, for which previous results can either not by applied or yield highly sub-optimal estimates.

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arXiv2015

Transparent boundary conditions in a Discontinuous Galerkin Trefftz method

The modeling and simulation of electromagnetic wave propagation is often accompanied by a restriction to bounded domains which requires the introduction of artificial boundaries. The corresponding boundary conditions should be chosen in order to minimize parasitic reflections. In this paper, we investigate a new type of transparent boundary condition for a discontinuous Galerkin Trefftz finite element method. The choice of a particular basis consisting of polynomial plane waves allows us to split the electromagnetic field into components with a well specified direction of propagation. The reflections at the artificial boundaries are then reduced by penalizing components of the field incoming into the space-time domain of interest. We formally introduce this concept, discuss its realization within the discontinuous Galerkin framework, and demonstrate the performance of the resulting approximations by numerical tests. A comparison with first order absorbing boundary conditions, that are frequently used in practice, is made. For a proper choice of basis functions, we observe spectral convergence in our numerical test and an overall dissipative behavior for which we also give some theoretical explanation.

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arXiv2015

Identification of Chemotaxis Models with Volume Filling

Chemotaxis refers to the directed movement of cells in response to a chemical signal called chemoattractant. A crucial point in the mathematical modeling of chemotactic processes is the correct description of the chemotactic sensitivity and of the production rate of the chemoattractant. In this paper, we investigate the identification of these non-linear parameter functions in a chemotaxis model with volume filling. We also discuss the numerical realization of Tikhonov regularization for the stable solution of the inverse problem. Our theoretical findings are supported by numerical tests.

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arXiv2014

A Space-Time Discontinuous Galerkin Trefftz Method for time dependent Maxwell's equations

We consider the discretization of electromagnetic wave propagation problems by a discontinuous Galerkin Method based on Trefftz polynomials. This method fits into an abstract framework for space-time discontinuous Galerkin methods for which we can prove consistency, stability, and energy dissipation without the need to completely specify the approximation spaces in detail. Any method of such a general form results in an implicit time-stepping scheme with some basic stability properties. For the local approximation on each space-time element, we then consider Trefftz polynomials, i.e., the subspace of polynomials that satisfy Maxwell's equations exactly on the respective element. We present an explicit construction of a basis for the local Trefftz spaces in two and three dimensions and summarize some of their basic properties. Using local properties of the Trefftz polynomials, we can establish the well-posedness of the resulting discontinuous Galerkin Trefftz method. Consistency, stability, and energy dissipation then follow immediately from the results about the abstract framework. The method proposed in this paper therefore shares many of the advantages of more standard discontinuous Galerkin methods, while at the same time, it yields a substantial reduction in the number of degrees of freedom and the cost for assembling. These benefits and the spectral convergence of the scheme are demonstrated in numerical tests.

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arXiv2014

Diffusion asymptotics for linear transport with low regularity

We provide an asymptotic analysis of linear transport problems in the diffusion limit under minimal regularity assumptions on the domain, the coefficients, and the data. The weak form of the limit equation is derived and the convergence of the solution in the $L^2$ norm is established without artificial regularity requirements. This is important to be able to deal with problems involving realistic geometries and heterogeneous media. In a second step we prove the usual $O(\varepsilon)$ convergence rates under very mild additional assumptions. The generalization of the results to convergence in $L^p$ with $p \ne 2$ and some limitations are discussed.

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arXiv2014

An $L^p$ theory for stationary radiative transfer

We present a self-contained analysis of the stationary radiative transfer equation in weighted $L^p$ spaces. The use of weighted spaces allows us to derive uniform a-priori estimates for $1 \le p \le \infty$ under minimal assumptions on the parameters. By constructing an explicit example, we show that our estimates are sharp and cannot be improved in general. Better estimates are however derived under additional assumptions on the parameters. We also present estimates for derivatives and traces of the solution and formulate a natural energy space, for which the data-to-solution map becomes an isomorphism. As a side result, we are able to prove uniform convergence of the source iteration for all $1 \le p \le \infty$ without the assumption of positive absorption that is frequently used in the literature.

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arXiv2014

Identification of nonlinear heat conduction laws

We consider the identification of nonlinear heat conduction laws in stationary and instationary heat transfer problems. Only a single additional measurement of the temperature on a curve on the boundary is required to determine the unknown parameter function on the range of observed temperatures. We first present a new proof of Cannon's uniqueness result for the stationary case, then derive a corresponding stability estimate, and finally extend our argument to instationary problems.

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arXiv2013

Simultaneous identification of diffusion and absorption coefficients in a quasilinear elliptic problem

In this work we consider the identifiability of two coefficients $a(u)$ and $c(x)$ in a quasilinear elliptic partial differential equation from observation of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. We use a linearization procedure due to Isakov [On uniqueness in inverse problems for semilinear parabolic equations. Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 1993] and special singular solutions to first determine $a(0)$ and $c(x)$ for $x \in Ω$. Based on this partial result, we are then able to determine $a(u)$ for $u \in \mathbb{R}$ by an adjoint approach.

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arXiv2013

Numerical methods for parameter identification in stationary radiative transfer

We consider the identification of scattering and absorption rates in the stationary radiative transfer equation. For a stable solution of this parameter identification problem, we consider Tikhonov regularization within Banach spaces. A regularized solution is then defined via an optimal control problem constrained by an integro partial differential equation. By establishing the weak-continuity of the parameter-to-solution map, we are able to ensure the existence of minimizers and thus the well-posedness of the regularization method. In addition, we prove certain differentiability properties, which allow us to construct numerical algorithms for finding the minimizers and to analyze their convergence. Numerical results are presented to support the theoretical findings and illustrate the necessity of the assumptions made in the analysis.

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arXiv2013

Numerical identification of a nonlinear diffusion law via regularization in Hilbert scales

We consider the reconstruction of a diffusion coefficient in a quasilinear elliptic problem from a single measurement of overspecified Neumann and Dirichlet data. The uniqueness for this parameter identification problem has been established by Cannon and we therefore focus on the stable solution in the presence of data noise. For this, we utilize a reformulation of the inverse problem as a linear ill-posed operator equation with perturbed data and operators. We are able to explicitly characterize the mapping properties of the corresponding operators which allow us to apply regularization in Hilbert scales. We can then prove convergence and convergence rates of the regularized reconstructions under very mild assumptions on the exact parameter. These are, in fact, already needed for the analysis of the forward problem and no additional source conditions are required. Numerical tests are presented to illustrate the theoretical statements.

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