Automatic variationally stable analysis for finite element computations: Transient convection-diffusion problems

Abstract

We present an application of stable finite element (FE) approximations of convection-diffusion initial boundary value problems (IBVPs) using a weighted least squares FE method, the automatic variationally stable finite element (AVS-FE) method [1]. The transient convection-diffusion problem leads to issues in classical FE methods as the differential operator can be considered a singular perturbation in both space and time. The stability property of the AVS-FE method, allows us significant flexibility in the construction of FE approximations in both space and time. Thus, in this paper, we take two distinct approaches to the FE discretization of the convection-diffusion problem: i) considering a space-time approach in which the temporal discretization is established using finite elements, and ii) a method of lines approach in which we employ the AVS-FE method in space whereas the temporal domain is discretized using the generalized-α method. We also consider another space-time technique in which the temporal direction is partitioned, thereby leading to finite space-time “slices” in an attempt to reduce the computational cost of the space-time discretizations.We present numerical verifications for these approaches, including numerical asymptotic convergence studies highlighting optimal convergence properties. Furthermore, in the spirit of the discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin (DPG) method by Demkowicz and Gopalakrishnan [2–6], the AVS-FE method also leads to readily available a posteriori error estimates through a Riesz representer of the residual of the AVS-FE approximations. Hence, the norm of the resulting local restrictions of these estimates serves as error indicators in both space and time for which we present multiple numerical verifications in mesh adaptive strategies.