Alternating direction Galerkin method for quasilinear parabolic equations

Abstract

Consider the following parabolic equation: (1) ∂u/∂t−∑2i=1(d/dxi)ai(x,t,u,D1u,D2u)+a0(x,t,u,D1u,D2u)=f(x,t), x=(x1,x2)∈Ω⊂R2, t∈[0,T], with the initial value condition u(x,0)=u0(x), x∈Ω, and with the boundary value condition u(x,t)=0, x∈∂Ω, t∈[0,T]. For the solution of equation (1) the author proposes a variational-difference method. Namely, he approximates equation (1) by Galerkin's method with respect to the variables x1,x2 and by the finite-difference method with respect to the variable t. Under some assumptions concerning the coefficients ai, i=0,1,2, an estimate of the error is given.