Moving mesh methods provide an efficient way of solving partial differential equations for which large, localised variations in the solution necessitate locally dense spatial meshes. In one-dimension, meshes are typically specified using the arclength mesh density function. This choice is well-justified for piecewise polynomial interpolants, but it is only justified for spectral methods when model solutions include localised steep gradients. In this paper, one-dimensional mesh density functions are presented which are based on a spatially localised measure of the bandwidth of the approximated model solution. In considering bandwidth, these mesh density functions are well-justified for spectral methods, but are not strictly tied to the error properties of any particular spatial interpolant, and are hence widely applicable. The bandwidth mesh density functions are illustrated in two ways. First, by applying them to Chebyshev polynomial approximation of two test functions, and second, through use in periodic spectral and finite-difference moving mesh methods applied to a number of model problems in acoustics. These problems include a heterogeneous advection equation, the viscous Burgers’ equation, and the Korteweg-de Vries equation. Simulation results demonstrate solution convergence rates that are up to an order of magnitude faster using the bandwidth mesh density functions than uniform meshes, and around three times faster than those using the arclength mesh density function.

Anisotropic mesh adaptation is studied for linear finite element solution of 3D anisotropic diffusion problems. The 𝕄-uniform mesh approach is used, where an anisotropic adaptive mesh is generated as a uniform one in the metric specified by a tensor. In addition to mesh adaptation, preservation of the maximum principle is also studied. Some new sufficient conditions for maximum principle preservation are developed, and a mesh quality measure is defined to server as a good indicator. Four different metric tensors are investigated: one is the identity matrix, one focuses on minimizing an error bound, another one on preservation of the maximum principle, while the fourth combines both. Numerical examples show that these metric tensors serve their purposes. Particularly, the fourth leads to meshes that improve the satisfaction of the maximum principle by the finite element solution while concentrating elements in regions where the error is large. Application of the anisotropic mesh adaptation to fractured reservoir simulation in petroleum engineering is also investigated, where unphysical solutions can occur and mesh adaptation can help improving the satisfaction of the maximum principle.

An adaptive moving mesh finite difference method is presented to solve two types of equations with dynamic capillary pressure effect in porous media. One is the non-equilibrium Richards Equation and the other is the modified Buckley-Leverett equation. The governing equations are discretized with an adaptive moving mesh finite difference method in the space direction and an implicit-explicit method in the time direction. In order to obtain high quality meshes, an adaptive monitor function with directional control is applied to redistribute the mesh grid in every time step, then a diffusive mechanism is used to smooth the monitor function. The behaviors of the central difference flux, the standard local Lax-Friedrich flux and the local Lax-Friedrich flux with reconstruction are investigated by solving a 1D modified Buckley-Leverett equation. With the moving mesh technique, good mesh quality and high numerical accuracy are obtained. A collection of one-dimensional and two-dimensional numerical experiments is presented to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper is concerned with numerical method for a two-dimensional time-dependent cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The approximations are obtained by the Galerkin finite element method in space in conjunction with the backward Euler method and the Crank-Nicolson method in time, respectively. We prove optimal L2 error estimates for two fully discrete schemes by using elliptic projection operator. Finally, a numerical example is provided to verify our theoretical results.

Adaptive numerical methods for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) that control the movement of grid points are called moving mesh methods. In this paper, these methods are examined in the case where a separate PDE, that depends on a monitor function, controls the behavior of the mesh. This results in a system of PDEs: one controlling the mesh and another solving the physical problem that is of interest. For a class of monitor functions resembling the arc length monitor, a trade off between computational efficiency in solving the moving mesh system and the accuracy level of the solution to the physical PDE is demonstrated. This accuracy is measured in the density of mesh points in the desired portion of the domain where the function has steep gradient. The balance of computational efficiency versus accuracy is illustrated numerically with both the arc length monitor and a monitor that minimizes certain interpolation errors. Physical solutions with steep gradients in small portions of their domain are considered for both the analysis and the computations.

In this paper, we present a discretization of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation based on a Magnus-Lanczos time integrator and high-order Gauss-Lobatto finite elements in space. A truncated Galerkin orthogonality is used to obtain duality-based a posteriori error estimates that address the temporal and the spatial error separately. Based on this theory, a space-time adaptive solver for the Schrödinger equation is devised. An efficient matrix-free implementation of the differential operator, suited for spectral elements, is used to enable computations for realistic configurations. We demonstrate the performance of the algorithm for the example of matter-field interaction.

In this paper we consider an anisotropic convection-diffusion (ACD) filter for image denoising and compression simultaneously. The ACD filter is discretized by a tailored finite point method (TFPM), which can tailor some particular properties of the image in an irregular grid structure. A quadtree structure is implemented for the storage in multi-levels for the compression. We compare the performance of the proposed scheme with several well-known filters. The numerical results show that the proposed method is effective for removing a mixture of white Gaussian and salt-and-pepper noises.

In order to suppress the failure of preserving positivity of density or pressure, a positivity-preserving limiter technique coupled with h-adaptive Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin (RKDG) method is developed in this paper. Such a method is implemented to simulate flows with the large Mach number, strong shock/obstacle interactions and shock diffractions. The Cartesian grid with ghost cell immersed boundary method for arbitrarily complex geometries is also presented. This approach directly uses the cell solution polynomial of DG finite element space as the interpolation formula. The method is validated by the well documented test examples involving unsteady compressible flows through complex bodies over a large Mach numbers. The numerical results demonstrate the robustness and the versatility of the proposed approach.

Simulation of turbulent flows with shocks employing subgrid-scale (SGS) filtering may encounter a loss of accuracy in the vicinity of a shock. This paper addresses the accuracy improvement of LES of turbulent flows in two ways: (a) from the SGS model standpoint and (b) from the numerical method improvement standpoint. In an internal report, Kotov et al. ( “High Order Numerical Methods for large eddy simulation (LES) of Turbulent Flows with Shocks”, CTR Tech Brief, Oct. 2014, Stanford University), we performed a preliminary comparative study of different approaches to reduce the loss of accuracy within the framework of the dynamic Germano SGS model. The high order low dissipative method of Yee & Sjögreen (2009) using local flow sensors to control the amount of numerical dissipation where needed is used for the LES simulation. The considered improved dynamics model approaches include applying the one-sided SGS test filter of Sagaut & Germano (2005) and/or disabling the SGS terms at the shock location. For Mach 1.5 and 3 canonical shock-turbulence interaction problems, both of these approaches show a similar accuracy improvement to that of the full use of the SGS terms. The present study focuses on a five levels of grid refinement study to obtain the reference direct numerical simulation (DNS) solution for additional LES SGS comparison and approaches. One of the numerical accuracy improvements included here applies Harten's subcell resolution procedure to locate and sharpen the shock, and uses a one-sided test filter at the grid points adjacent to the exact shock location.

We introduce efficient approaches to construct high order finite difference discretizations for solving partial differential equations, based on a composite grid hierarchy. We introduce a modification of the traditional point clustering algorithm, obtained by adding restrictive parameters that control the minimal patch length and the size of the buffer zone. As a result, a reduction in the number of interfacial cells is observed. Based on a reasonable geometric grid setting, we discuss a general approach for the construction of stencils in a composite grid environment. The straightforward approach leads to an ill-posed problem. In our approach we regularize this problem, and transform it into solving a symmetric system of linear of equations. Finally, a stencil repository has been designed to further reduce computational overhead. The effectiveness of the discretizations is illustrated by numerical experiments on second order elliptic differential equations.

In this work, vortex convection is simulated using a dynamic mesh adaptation procedure. In each adaptation period, the mesh is refined in the regions where the phenomena evolve and is coarsened in the regions where the phenomena deviate since the last adaptation. A simple indicator of mesh adaptation that accounts for the solution progression is defined. The generation of dynamic adaptive meshes is based on multilevel refinement/coarsening. The efficiency and accuracy of the present procedure are validated by simulating vortex convection in a uniform flow. Two unsteady compressible turbulent flows involving blade-vortex interactions are investigated to demonstrate further the applicability of the procedure. Computed results agree well with the published experimental data or numerical results.

We critically compare the practicality and accuracy of numerical approximations of phase field models and sharp interface models of solidification. Here we focus on Stefan problems, and their quasi-static variants, with applications to crystal growth. New approaches with a high mesh quality for the parametric approximations of the resulting free boundary problems and new stable discretizations of the anisotropic phase field system are taken into account in a comparison involving benchmark problems based on exact solutions of the free boundary problem.

A novel method for boundary constrained tetrahedral mesh generation is proposed based on Advancing Front Technique (AFT) and conforming Delaunay triangulation. Given a triangulated surface mesh, AFT is firstly applied to mesh several layers of elements adjacent to the boundary. The rest of the domain is then meshed by the conforming Delaunay triangulation. The non-conformal interface between two parts of meshes are adjusted. Mesh refinement and mesh optimization are then preformed to obtain a more reasonable-sized mesh with better quality. Robustness and quality of the proposed method is shown. Convergence proof of each stage as well as the whole algorithm is provided. Various numerical examples are included as well as the quality of the meshes.

Finite difference computations that involve spatial adaptation commonly employ an equidistribution principle. In these cases, a new mesh is constructed such that a given monitor function is equidistributed in some sense. Typical choices of the monitor function involve the solution or one of its many derivatives. This straightforward concept has proven to be extremely effective and practical. However, selections of core monitoring functions are often challenging and crucial to the computational success. This paper concerns six different designs of the monitoring function that targets a highly nonlinear partial differential equation that exhibits both quenching-type and degeneracy singularities. While the first four monitoring strategies are within the so-called primitive regime, the rest belong to a later category of the modified type, which requires the priori knowledge of certain important quenching solution characteristics. Simulated examples are given to illustrate our study and conclusions.

The numerical solution of the harmonic heat map flow problems with blowup in finite or infinite time is considered using an adaptive moving mesh method. A properly chosen monitor function is derived so that the moving mesh method can be used to simulate blowup and produce accurate blowup profiles which agree with formal asymptotic analysis. Moreover, the moving mesh method has finite time blowup when the underlying continuous problem does. In situations where the continuous problem has infinite time blowup, the moving mesh method exhibits finite time blowup with a blowup time tending to infinity as the number of mesh points increases. The inadequacy of a uniform mesh solution is clearly demonstrated.

This work presents a moving mesh methodology based on the solution of a pseudo flow problem. The mesh motion is modeled as a pseudo Stokes problem solved by an explicit finite element projection method. The mesh quality requirements are satisfied by employing a null divergent velocity condition. This methodology is applied to triangular unstructured meshes and compared to well known approaches such as the ones based on diffusion and pseudo structural problems. One of the test cases is an airfoil with a fully meshed domain. A specific rotation velocity is imposed as the airfoil boundary condition. The other test is a set of two cylinders that move toward each other. A mesh quality criteria is employed to identify critically distorted elements and to evaluate the performance of each mesh motion approach. The results obtained for each test case show that the pseudo-flow methodology produces satisfactory meshes during the moving process.

Detecting similarity between non-rigid shapes is one of the fundamental problems in computer vision. In order to measure the similarity the shapes must first be aligned. As opposite to rigid alignment that can be parameterized using a small number of unknowns representing rotations, reflections and translations, non-rigid alignment is not easily parameterized. Majority of the methods addressing this problem boil down to a minimization of a certain distortion measure. The complexity of a matching process is exponential by nature, but it can be heuristically reduced to a quadratic or even linear for shapes which are smooth two-manifolds. Here we model the shapes using both local and global structures, employ these to construct a quadratic dissimilarity measure, and provide a hierarchical framework for minimizing it to obtain sparse set of corresponding points. These correspondences may serve as an initialization for dense linear correspondence search.

Algorithms for adaptive mesh refinement using a residual error estimator are proposed for fluid flow problems in a finite volume framework. The residual error estimator, referred to as the ℜ-parameter is used to derive refinement and coarsening criteria for the adaptive algorithms. An adaptive strategy based on the ℜ-parameter is proposed for continuous flows, while a hybrid adaptive algorithm employing a combination of error indicators and the ℜ-parameter is developed for discontinuous flows. Numerical experiments for inviscid and viscous flows on different grid topologies demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms on arbitrary polygonal grids.

The variable high-order multiblock overlapping (overset) grids method of Sjögreen & Yee [CiCP, Vol. 5, 2009] for a perfect gas has been extended to nonequilibrium flows. This work makes use of the recently developed high-order well-balanced shock-capturing schemes and their filter counterparts [Wang et al., J. Comput. Phys., 2009, 2010] that exactly preserve certain non-trivial steady state solutions of the chemical nonequilibrium governing equations. Multiscale turbulence with strong shocks and flows containing both steady and unsteady components is best treated by mixing of numerical methods and switching on the appropriate scheme in the appropriate subdomains of the flow fields, even under the multiblock grid or adaptive grid refinement framework. While low dissipative sixth- or higher-order shock-capturing filter methods are appropriate for unsteady turbulence with shocklets, second- and third- order shock-capturing methods are more effective for strong steady or nearly steady shocks in terms of convergence. It is anticipated that our variable high-order overset grid framework capability with its highly modular design will allow for an optimum synthesis of these new algorithms in such a way that the most appropriate spatial discretizations can be tailored for each particular region of the flow. In this paper some of the latest developments in single block high-order filter schemes for chemical nonequilibrium flows are applied to overset grid geometries. The numerical approach is validated on a number of test cases characterized by hypersonic conditions with strong shocks, including the reentry flow surrounding a 3D Apollo-like NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle that might contain mixed steady and unsteady components, depending on the flow conditions.

This paper deals with the application of a moving mesh method for kinetic/hydrodynamic coupling model in two dimensions. With some criteria, the domain is dynamically decomposed into three parts: kinetic regions where fluids are far from equilibrium, hydrodynamic regions where fluids are near thermody-namical equilibrium and buffer regions which are used as a smooth transition. The Boltzmann-BGK equation is solved in kinetic regions, while Euler equations in hydrodynamic regions and both equations in buffer regions. By a well defined monitor function, our moving mesh method smoothly concentrate the mesh grids to the regions containing rapid variation of the solutions. In each moving mesh step, the solutions are conservatively updated to the new mesh and the cut-off function is rebuilt first to consist with the region decomposition after the mesh motion. In such a framework, the evolution of the hybrid model and the moving mesh procedure can be implemented independently, therefore keep the advantages of both approaches. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the method.