Pointwise error estimate of the compact difference methods for the fourth‐order parabolic equations with the third Neumann boundary conditions

Abstract

Various boundary value conditions have been endowed for the fourth‐order differential equations. In the current work, a class of the fourth‐order parabolic equations with the third Neumann boundary conditions is concerned, where the values of the second and third spatial derivatives of the unknown function are given at the boundary. A novel average is defined to get the compact approximation near the boundary. Then a compact difference scheme is derived by using the weighted average and the method of order reduction. Due to the special and highly accurate discretization at the boundary, the related terms have to be handled skillfully during the analysis. By the energy method, the unique solvability, unconditional stability, and convergence of the derived compact difference scheme are strictly proved. The analytical difficulties caused by the boundary approximation are successfully overcome. As far as we know, this is the first time that the global pointwise fourth‐order convergence in space of the difference approach for this problem is achieved. In addition, the generalization to solve the case with a space‐dependent reaction coefficient is discussed. Finally, two numerical examples are computed to verify the accuracy of proposed numerical schemes.