Linearity-preserving flux correction and convergence acceleration for constrained Galerkin schemes

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the development of general-purpose algebraic flux correction schemes for continuous (linear and multilinear) finite elements. In order to enforce the discrete maximum principle (DMP), we modify the standard Galerkin discretization of a scalar transport equation by adding diffusive and antidiffusive fluxes. The result is a nonlinear algebraic system satisfying the DMP constraint. An estimate based on variational gradient recovery leads to a linearity-preserving limiter for the difference between the function values at two neighboring nodes. A fully multidimensional version of this scheme is obtained by taking the sum of local bounds and constraining the total flux. This new approach to algebraic flux correction provides a unified treatment of stationary and time-dependent problems. Moreover, the same algorithm is used to limit convective fluxes, anisotropic diffusion operators, and the antidiffusive part of the consistent mass matrix.The nonlinear algebraic system associated with the constrained Galerkin scheme is solved using fixed-point defect correction or a nonlinear SSOR method. A dramatic improvement of nonlinear convergence rates is achieved with the technique known as Anderson acceleration (or Anderson mixing). It blends a number of last iterates in a GMRES fashion, which results in a Broyden-like quasi-Newton update. The numerical behavior of the proposed algorithms is illustrated by a grid convergence study for convection-dominated transport problems and anisotropic diffusion equations in 2D.