Surface partial differential equations model several natural phenomena; for example in uid mechanics, cell biology and material science. The domain of the equations can often have complex and changing morphology. This implies analytic techniques are unavailable, hence numerical methods are required. The aim of this thesis is to design and analyse three methods for solving different problems with surface partial differential equations at their core. First, we define a new finite element method for numerically approximating solutions of partial differential equations in a bulk region coupled to surface partial differential equations posed on the boundary of this domain. The key idea is to take a polyhedral approximation of the bulk region consisting of a union of simplices, and to use piecewise polynomial boundary faces as an approximation of the surface and solve using isoparametric finite element spaces. We study this method in the context of a model elliptic problem. The main result in this chapter is an optimal order error estimate which is confirmed in numerical experiments. Second, we use the evolving surface finite element method to solve a Cahn- Hilliard equation on an evolving surface with prescribed velocity. We start by deriving the equation using a conservation law and appropriate transport formulae and provide the necessary functional analytic setting. The finite element method relies on evolving an initial triangulation by moving the nodes according to the prescribed velocity. We go on to show a rigorous well-posedness result for the continuous equations by showing convergence, along a subsequence, of the finite element scheme. We conclude the chapter by deriving error estimates and present various numerical examples. Finally, we stray from surface finite element method to consider new unfitted finite element methods for surface partial differential equations. The idea is to use a fixed bulk triangulation and approximate the surface using a discrete approximation of the distance function. We describe and analyse two methods using a sharp interface and narrow band approximation of the surface for a Poisson equation. Error estimates are described and numerical computations indicate very good convergence and stability properties.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:582431 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Ranner, Thomas |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/57647/ |
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