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A Flexible Galerkin Finite Element Method (FGM) is a hybrid class of finite element methods that combine the usual continuous Galerkin method with the now popular discontinuous Galerkin method (DGM). A detailed description of the formulation of the FGM on a hyperbolic partial differential equation, as well as the data structures used in the FGM algorithm is presented. Some hp-convergence results and computational cost are included. Additionally, an a posteriori error estimate for the DGM applied to a two-dimensional hyperbolic partial differential equation is constructed. Several examples, both linear and nonlinear, indicating the effectiveness of the error estimate are included. / Ph. D.

We provide an algorithm and analysis of a high order projection scheme for time integration of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations (NSE). The method is based on a projection onto the subspace of divergence-free (incompressible) functions interleaved with a Krylov-based exponential time integration (KBEI). These time integration methods provide a high order accurate, stable approach with many of the advantages of explicit methods, and can reduce the computational resources over conventional methods. The method is scalable in the sense that the computational costs grow linearly with problem size. Exponential integrators, used typically to solve systems of ODEs, utilize matrix vector products of the exponential of the Jacobian on a vector. For large systems, this product can be approximated efficiently by Krylov subspace methods. However, in contrast to explicit methods, KBEIs are not restricted by the time step. While implicit methods require a solution of a linear system with the Jacobian, KBEIs only require matrix vector products of the Jacobian. Furthermore, these methods are based on linearization, so there is no non-linear system solve at each time step. Differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) are ordinary differential equations (ODEs) subject to algebraic constraints. The discretized NSE constitute a system of DAEs, where the incompressibility condition is the algebraic constraint. Exponential integrators can be extended to DAEs with linear constraints imposed via a projection onto the constraint manifold. This results in a projected ODE that is integrated by a KBEI. In this approach, the Krylov subspace satisfies the constraint, hence the solution at the advanced time step automatically satisfies the constraint as well. For the NSE, the projection onto the constraint is typically achieved by a projection induced by the L2 inner product. We examine this L2 projection and an H1 projection induced by the H1 semi-inner product. The H1 projection has an advantage over the L2 projection in that it retains tangential Dirichlet boundary conditions for the flow. Both the H1 and L2 projections are solutions to saddle point problems that are efficiently solved by a preconditioned Uzawa algorithm. / Ph. D.

The emerging field of nanomechanics is providing a new focus in the study of the mechanics of materials, particularly in simulating fundamental atomic mechanisms involved in the initiation and evolution of damage. Simulating fundamental material processes using first principles in physics strongly motivates the formulation of computational multiscale methods to link macroscopic failure to the underlying atomic processes from which all material behavior originates. A combined concurrent and sequential multiscale methodology is developed to analyze fracture mechanisms across length scales. Unique characterizations of grain boundary fracture mechanisms in an aluminum material system are performed at the atomic level using molecular dynamics simulation and are mapped into cohesive zone models for continuum modeling within a finite element framework. Fracture along grain boundaries typically exhibit a dependence of crack tip processes (i.e. void nucleation in brittle cleavage or dislocation emission in ductile blunting) on the direction of propagation due to slip plane orientation in adjacent grains. A new method of concurrently coupling molecular dynamics and finite element analysis frameworks is formulated to minimize the overall computational requirements in simulating atomistically large material regions. A sequential multiscale approach is advanced to model microscale polycrystal domains in which atomistically-based cohesive zone parameters are incorporated into special directional decohesion finite elements that automatically apply appropriate ductile or brittle cohesive properties depending on the direction of crack propagation. The developed multiscale analysis methodology is illustrated through a parametric study of grain boundary fracture in three-dimensional aluminum microstructures. / Ph. D.