Hp-finite Element Research Articles

Efficient computation of magnetic polarizability tensor spectral signatures for object characterisation in metal detection

PurposeMagnetic polarizability tensors (MPTs) provide an economical characterisation of conducting magnetic metallic objects and their spectral signature can aid in the solution of metal detection inverse problems, such as scrap metal sorting, searching for unexploded ordnance in areas of former conflict and security screening at event venues and transport hubs. In this work, the authors aim to discuss methods for efficiently building large dictionaries for classification approaches.Design/methodology/approachPrevious work has established explicit formulae for MPT coefficients, underpinned by a rigorous mathematical theory. To assist with the efficient computation of MPTs at differing parameters and objects of interest, this work applies new observations about the way the MPT coefficients can be computed. Furthermore, the authors discuss discretisation strategies for hp-finite elements on meshes of unstructured tetrahedra combined with prismatic boundary layer elements for resolving thin skin depths and using an adaptive proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) reduced-order modelling methodology to accelerate computations for varying parameters.FindingsThe success of the proposed methodologies is demonstrated using a series of examples. A significant reduction in computational effort is observed across all examples. The authors identify and recommend a simple discretisation strategy and improved accuracy is obtained using adaptive POD.Originality/valueThe authors present novel computations, timings and error certificates of MPT characterisations of realistic objects made of magnetic materials. A novel postprocessing implementation is introduced and an adaptive POD algorithm is demonstrated.

Two-field mixed hp-finite elements for time-dependent problems in the refined theories of thermodynamics

Modern manufacturing technologies allow heterogeneous materials with complex inner structures (e.g., foams) to be easily produced. However, their utilization is not straightforward, as the classical constitutive laws are not necessarily valid. According to various experimental observations, the Guyer–Krumhansl equation is a promising candidate for modeling such complex structures. However, practical applications need a reliable and efficient algorithm capable of handling both complex geometries and advanced heat equations. In the present paper, we derive new two-field variational formulations which treat the temperature and the heat flux as independent field variables, and we develop new, advanced hp-type mixed finite element methods, which can be reliably applied. We investigate their convergence properties for various situations, challenging in relation to stability and the treatment of fast propagation speeds. That algorithm is also proved to be outstandingly efficient, providing solutions four magnitudes faster than commercial algorithms.

Three-field mixed hp-finite element method for the solution of the Guyer–Krumhansl heat conduction model

On the basis of numerous experimental studies the Guyer–Krumhansl heat conductivity model can be considered as one of the most promising theoretical models to simulate the low temperature processes and the thermal behavior of such complex structures as materials with inhomogeneities and interfaces, as well as porous materials. However, the classical h-version finite element methods do not provide convergent and accurate results for the solution of the Guyer–Krumhansl heat conductivity model. In recent paper, a new three-field variational formulation is derived treating the temperature, the heat flow and its current density as independent variables. Both the temperature- and the heat flow boundary condition are weakly imposed, i.e., built in the variational form.Based on this variational background, a new, hp-version mixed finite element method is constructed. The h- and p-convergence behaviors of the temperature and the heat flow are analyzed on the transient region for two representative model problems: (i) a rapid heating process with exponentially changing rate and (ii) a ramp-type heating process. The relative and absolute errors are measured in maximum norm. From the computational experiments it follows that the mixed hp-finite element method gives reliable, robust (uniformly stable) results not only for the h- but also for the p-approximation in the case of both the temperature and the heat flow.

Guaranteed contraction of adaptive inexact hp-refinement strategies with realistic stopping criteria

The purpose of this contribution it to theoretically analyze the adaptive refinement strategies for conforming hp-finite element approximations of elliptic problems proposed for exact algebraic solvers in (P. Daniel, A. Ern, I. Smears and M. Vohralk, Comput. Math. Appl. 76 (2018) 967–983.) and for inexact algebraic solvers in (P. Daniel, A. Ern, and M. Vohralk, Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 359 (2020) 112607.). Both of these strategies are driven by guaranteed equilibrated flux energy error estimators. The employed hp-refinement criterion stems from solving two separate local residual problems posed only on the patches of elements around marked vertices selected by a bulk-chasing criterion. In the above references, we have derived a fully computable guaranteed bound on the ratio of the error on two successive steps of the hp-adaptive loop. Here, our focus is to prove that this ratio is uniformly smaller than one, and thus the convergence of the adaptive and adaptive inexact hp-refinement strategies. To be able to achieve this goal, we have to introduce some additional assumptions on the h- and p-refinements, namely an extension of the marked region, as well as a sufficient h- or p-refinement of each marked patch. We investigate two such strategies, where one ensures a polynomial-degree-robust guaranteed contraction. In the inexact case, a sufficiently precise stopping criterion for the algebraic solver is requested, but this criterion remains fully computable and also realistic in the sense that in our numerical experiments, it does not request the algebraic error to be excessively small in comparison with the total error.

Space-time hp-finite elements for heat evolution in laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing

The direct numerical simulation of metal additive manufacturing processes such as laser powder bed fusion is challenging due to the vast differences in spatial and temporal scales. Classical approaches based on locally refined finite elements combined with time-stepping schemes can only address the spatial multi-scale nature and provide only limited scaling potential for massively parallel computations. We address these shortcomings in a space-time Galerkin framework where the finite element interpolation also includes the temporal dimension. In this setting, we construct four-dimensional meshes that are locally refined towards the laser spot and allow for varying temporal accuracy depending on the position in space. By splitting the mesh into conforming time-slabs, we recover a stepwise solution to solve the space-time problem locally in time at this slab; additionally, we can choose time-slab sizes significantly larger than classical time-stepping schemes. As a result, we believe this setting to be well suited for large-scale parallelization. In our work, we use a continuous Galerkin–Petrov formulation of the nonlinear heat equation with an apparent heat capacity model to account for the phase change. We validate our approach by computing the AMB2018-02 benchmark, where we obtain an excellent agreement with the measured melt pool shape. Using the same setup, we demonstrate the performance potential of our approach by hatching a square area with a laser path length of about one meter.

Tensor rank bounds for point singularities in ℝ3

We analyze rates of approximation by quantized, tensor-structured representations of functions with isolated point singularities in ℝ3. We consider functions in countably normed Sobolev spaces with radial weights and analytic- or Gevrey-type control of weighted semi-norms. Several classes of boundary value and eigenvalue problems from science and engineering are discussed whose solutions belong to the countably normed spaces. It is shown that quantized, tensor-structured approximations of functions in these classes exhibit tensor ranks bounded polylogarithmically with respect to the accuracy ε ∈ (0,1) in the Sobolev space H1. We prove exponential convergence rates of three specific types of quantized tensor decompositions: quantized tensor train (QTT), transposed QTT and Tucker QTT. In addition, the bounds for the patchwise decompositions are uniform with respect to the position of the point singularity. An auxiliary result of independent interest is the proof of exponential convergence of hp-finite element approximations for Gevrey-regular functions with point singularities in the unit cube Q = (0,1)3. Numerical examples of function approximations and of Schrödinger-type eigenvalue problems illustrate the theoretical results.

High order approximations of the operator Lyapunov equation have low rank

We present a low-rank greedily adapted hp-finite element algorithm for computing an approximation to the solution of the Lyapunov operator equation. We show that there is a hidden regularity in eigenfunctions of the solution of the Lyapunov equation which can be utilized to justify the use of high order finite element spaces. Our numerical experiments indicate that we achieve eight figures of accuracy for computing the trace of the solution of the Lyapunov equation posed in a dumbbell-domain using a finite element space of dimension of only 10^4 degrees of freedom. Even more surprising is the observation that hp-refinement has an effect of reducing the rank of the approximation of the solution.

A Posteriori Error Estimates for Elliptic Eigenvalue Problems Using Auxiliary Subspace Techniques

We propose an a posteriori error estimator for high-order p- or hp-finite element discretizations of selfadjoint linear elliptic eigenvalue problems that is appropriate for estimating the error in the approximation of an eigenvalue cluster and the corresponding invariant subspace. The estimator is based on the computation of approximate error functions in a space that complements the one in which the approximate eigenvectors were computed. These error functions are used to construct estimates of collective measures of error, such as the Hausdorff distance between the true and approximate clusters of eigenvalues, and the subspace gap between the corresponding true and approximate invariant subspaces. Numerical experiments demonstrate the practical effectivity of the approach.

A posteriori error control for distributed elliptic optimal control problems with control constraints discretized by [formula omitted]-finite elements

A distributed elliptic control problem with control constraints is considered, which is formulated as a three field problem and consists of two variational equations for the state and the co-state variables as well as of a variational inequality for the control variable. Two discretization approaches with hp-finite elements are discussed: In the first discretization approach all variables (state, co-state and control) are discretized. A semi smooth Newton method is introduced for solving the resulting algebraic system. In the second discretization approach only the state and the co-state variables are discretized, whereas the control is determined by projection. A simple fixed point scheme is presented for the iterative solution of this approach. The main focus of the paper is on the derivation of reliable and efficient a posteriori error estimates, which enables hp-adaptive mesh refinements. In particular, the estimates can be applied to the iteration solutions, so that they can be used as a stopping criterion of the iterative solution schemes. In several numerical experiments the order of convergence of the (adaptive) discretization approaches and the efficiency as well as the reliability of the a posteriori error estimates are studied.

Exponential convergence of adaptive quarklet approximation

This paper is concerned with approximation properties of polynomially enriched wavelet systems, so-called quarklet frames. We show that certain model singularities that arise in elliptic boundary value problems on polygonal domains can be approximated from the span of such quarklet systems at inverse-exponential rates. In order to realize these, we combine spatial refinement in the vicinity of the singularities with suitable growth of the polynomial degrees in regions where the solution is smooth, similar to adaptive hp-finite element approximation.

An adaptive [formula omitted]-refinement strategy with inexact solvers and computable guaranteed bound on the error reduction factor

In this work we extend our recently proposed adaptive refinement strategy for hp-finite element approximations of elliptic problems by taking into account an inexact algebraic solver. Namely, on each level of refinement and on each iteration of an (arbitrary) iterative algebraic solver, we compute guaranteed a posteriori error bounds on the algebraic and the total errors in energy norm. The algebraic error is the difference between the inexact discrete solution obtained by an iterative algebraic solver and the (unavailable) exact discrete solution. On the other hand, the total error stands for the difference between the inexact discrete solution and the (unavailable) exact solution of the partial differential equation. For the algebraic error upper bound, we crucially exploit the whole nested hierarchy of hp-finite element spaces created by the adaptive algorithm, whereas the remaining parts of the total error upper and lower bounds are computed using the finest space only. These error bounds allow us to formulate adaptive stopping criteria for the algebraic solver ensuring that the algebraic error does not significantly contribute to the total error. Next, we use the total error bound to mark mesh vertices for refinement via Dörfler’s bulk-chasing criterion. On patches associated with marked vertices only, we solve two separate primal finite element problems with homogeneous Dirichlet (Neumann) boundary conditions, which serve to decide between h-, p-, or hp-refinement. Altogether, we show that these ingredients lead to a computable guaranteed bound on the ratio of the total errors of the inexact approximations between successive refinements (the error reduction factor), when the stopping criteria are satisfied. Finally, in a series of numerical experiments, we investigate the practicality of the proposed adaptive solver, the accuracy of our bound on the reduction factor, and show that exponential convergence rates are achieved even in the presence of an inexact algebraic solver.

Hybridized dual-mixed hp-finite element model for shells of revolution

A locking-free hp-version finite element is presented for linear elasticity problems of thin shells of revolution. The constructed hp-finite element is based on a hybridized dual-mixed variational formulation. The related theoretical model does not rely on the standard hypotheses used in the Naghdi- and Koiter shell theories, thus the unmodified three-dimensional constitutive equation can be applied. Nevertheless, since employing its inverse form, the hp-shell finite element is incompressibility locking-free. Besides, neither the thickness variation nor the membrane stress normal to the shell mid-surface is not eliminated from the shell formulation, thus it can be extended to much complicated (contact) problems of more complex (composite), extremely thin and moderately thick shell structures. The new hp-shell finite element is tested through some representative mixed and pure boundary value problems, namely bending- and membrane dominated situations, for singly and doubly curved shells of negative and positive Gaussian curvature. From the convergence behavior of the relative errors it follows that the developed hp-version shell finite element is insensitive to the decrease of the thickness value, i.e., membrane and shear locking-free, providing excellent numerical results not only for the displacement- but also for the stresses computations.

Hybridization and stabilization for hp-finite element methods

In this paper various hybrid hp-finite element methods are discussed for elliptic model problems. In particular, a stabilized primal-hybrid hp-method is introduced which approximatively ensures continuity conditions across element interfaces and avoids the enrichment of the primal discretization space as usually required to fulfill some discrete inf-sup condition. A priori as well as a posteriori error estimates are derived for this method. The stabilized primal-hybrid hp-method is also applied to a model obstacle problem since it admits the definition of pointwise constraints. The paper also describes some extensions of primal, primal-mixed and dual-mixed methods as well as their hybridizations to hp-finite elements. In numerical experiments the convergence properties of the stabilized primal-hybrid hp-method are discussed and compared to all the other hp-methods introduced in this paper. The applicability of the a posteriori error estimates to drive h- and hp-adaptive schemes is also investigated.

An adaptive [formula omitted]-refinement strategy with computable guaranteed bound on the error reduction factor

We propose a new practical adaptive refinement strategy for hp-finite element approximations of elliptic problems. Following recent theoretical developments in polynomial-degree-robust a posteriori error analysis, we solve two types of discrete local problems on vertex-based patches. The first type involves the solution on each patch of a mixed finite element problem with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions, which leads to an H(div,Ω)-conforming equilibrated flux. This, in turn, yields a guaranteed upper bound on the error and serves to mark mesh vertices for refinement via Dörfler’s bulk-chasing criterion. The second type of local problems involves the solution, on patches associated with marked vertices only, of two separate primal finite element problems with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions, which serve to decide between h-, p-, or hp-refinement. Altogether, we show that these ingredients lead to a computable guaranteed bound on the ratio of the errors between successive refinements (error reduction factor). In a series of numerical experiments featuring smooth and singular solutions, we study the performance of the proposed hp-adaptive strategy and observe exponential convergence rates. We also investigate the accuracy of our bound on the reduction factor by evaluating the ratio of the predicted reduction factor relative to the true error reduction, and we find that this ratio is in general quite close to the optimal value of one.

The harmonic virtual element method: stabilization and exponential convergence for the Laplace problem on polygonal domains

AbstractWe introduce the harmonic virtual element method (VEM) (harmonic VEM), a modification of the VEM (Beirão da Veiga et al. (2013) Basic principles of virtual element methods. Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci., 23, 199–214.) for the approximation of the two-dimensional Laplace equation using polygonal meshes. The main difference between the harmonic VEM and the VEM is that in the former method only boundary degrees of freedom are employed. Such degrees of freedom suffice for the construction of a proper energy projector on (piecewise harmonic) polynomial spaces. The harmonic VEM can also be regarded as an ‘$H^1$-conformisation’ of the Trefftz discontinuous Galerkin-finite element method (TDG-FEM) (Hiptmair et al. (2014) Approximation by harmonic polynomials in starshaped domains and exponential convergence of Trefftz hp-DGFEM. ESAIM Math. Model. Numer. Anal., 48, 727–752.). We address the stabilization of the proposed method and develop an hp version of harmonic VEM for the Laplace equation on polygonal domains. As in TDG-FEM, the asymptotic convergence rate of harmonic VEM is exponential and reaches order $\mathscr{O}(\exp (-b\sqrt [2]{N}))$, where $N$ is the number of degrees of freedom. This result overperforms its counterparts in the framework of hp FEM (Schwab, C. (1998)p- and hp-Finite Element Methods: Theory and Applications in Solid and Fluid Mechanics. Clarendon Press Oxford.) and hp VEM (Beirão da Veiga et al. (2018) Exponential convergence of the hp virtual element method with corner singularity. Numer. Math., 138, 581–613.), where the asymptotic rate of convergence is of order $\mathscr{O}(\exp(-b\sqrt [3]{N}))$.

High-order adaptive arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) simulations of solidification

A high-order-accurate method for simulation of solidification is presented. The solidification front is tracked using a triangular, Arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian moving mesh, and a mesh adaption algorithm is used to allow simulations of unsteady problems with large interfacial movement. An improved mesh coarsening algorithm is presented that maintains high quality deforming meshes while reducing the amount of interpolation needed to transfer solutions between meshes. An hp-finite element method is used to resolve the thermal and flow fields. This is combined with an A-stable diagonally-implicit Runge–Kutta temporal scheme. The method was demonstrated to give a temporal order of accuracy near 3 by comparing to a 1D analytic solution of melting. The spatial accuracy was calculated to be nearly 5th order for an approximation degree, p, equal to 4. Even for this simple case, the mesh adaption algorithm improved the accuracy over a simulation where the mesh only deformed. For a practical demonstration, the algorithm was used to simulate horizontal ribbon growth of single-crystal silicon and was able to resolve solutions where the solid layer thickness decreased by a factor of 20 over the course of the simulation.

A hierarchical computational model for moving thermal loads and phase changes with applications to selective laser melting

Computational heat transfer analysis often involves moving fluxes which induce traveling fronts of phase change coupled to one or more field variables. Examples are the transient simulation of melting, welding or of additive manufacturing processes, where material changes its state and the controlling fields are temperature and structural deformation. One of the challenges for a numerical computation of these processes is their multi-scale nature with a highly localized zone of phase transition which may travel over a large domain of a body. Here, a transient local adaptation of the approximation, with not only a refinement at the phase front, but also a de-refinement in regions, where the front has passed is of advantage because the de-refinement can assure a bounded number of degrees of freedom which is independent from the traveling length of the front.We present a computational model of this process which involves three novelties: (a) a very low number of degrees of freedom which yet yields a comparatively high accuracy. The number of degrees of freedom is, additionally, kept practically constant throughout the duration of the simulation. This is achieved by means of the multi-level hp-finite element method. Its exponential convergence is verified for the first time against a semi-analytic, three-dimensional transient linear thermal benchmark with a traveling source term which models a laser beam. ( b) A hierarchical treatment of the state variables. To this end, the state of the material is managed on a separate, octree-like grid. This material grid may refine or coarsen independently of the discretization used for the temperature field. This methodology is verified against an analytic benchmark of a melting bar computed in three dimensions in which phase changes of the material occur on a rapidly advancing front. (c) The combination of these technologies to demonstrate its potential for the computational modeling of selective laser melting processes. To this end, the computational methodology is extended by the finite cell method which allows for accurate simulations in an embedded domain setting. This opens the new modeling possibility that neither a scan vector nor a layer of material needs to conform to the discretization of the finite element mesh but can form only a fraction within the discretization of the field- and state variables.

Cubature versus Fekete–Gauss nodes for spectral element methods on simplicial meshes

In a recent JCP paper (by Y. Liu et al., vol. 336, p. 458, 2017) a higher order triangular spectral element method (T SEM) is proposed to address seismic wave field modeling. The main interest of this T SEM is that the mass matrix is diagonal, so that an explicit time marching becomes very cheap. This property results from the fact that, similarly to the usual SEM, the basis functions are Lagrange polynomials based on a set of points that shows both nice interpolation and quadrature properties. In the quadrangle, i.e. for the QSEM, the set of points is simply obtained by tensorial product of Gauss-Lobatto-Legendre (GLL) points. In the triangle, finding such an appropriate set of points is however not trivial. Thus, the recent JCP work follows anterior works that started in 2000's and now provides cubature nodes and weights up to N = 9, where N is the total degree of the polynomial approximation. Here we wish to evaluate the accuracy of this cubature nodes T SEM with respect to the Fekete-Gauss one, that makes use of two sets of points, namely the Fekete points and the Gauss points of the triangle for interpolation and quadrature, respectively. Because the Fekete-Gauss T SEM is in the spirit of any nodal hp-finite element methods, one may expect that the conclusions of this Note will remain relevant if using other sets of carefully defined interpolation points.

An easy treatment of hanging nodes in [formula omitted]-finite elements

We present an easy treatment of (multi-level) hanging nodes in hp-finite elements in two dimensions. Its simplicity is due to the fact that the connectivity matrices can directly be computed in a row-wise fashion. This is achieved by treating a global degree of freedom as a local degree of freedom on each element in an appropriate union of elements. This forms a type of support which is larger than the one used in the conventional approach and generalizes the recently presented multi-level hp-method. Our method requires the global degrees of freedom to be derived from tensor-product shape functions. It supports refinements of general quadrilaterals and curvilinear elements since refinements are performed on the reference element. While the method can be applied most efficiently if the subdivision leads to a paraxial subset of the reference element, also non-paraxial refinements are supported.Numerical experiments compare the new approach with respect to accuracy and the conditioning of the resulting linear system. We conclude that this new approach achieves nearly the same properties as the conventional approach in all investigated examples and provides an excellent trade-off between implementational complexity and solvability.

Dimensionally adaptive hp-finite element simulation and inversion of 2D magnetotelluric measurements

Magnetotelluric (MT) problems often contain different subdomains where the conductivity of the media depends upon one, two, or three spatial variables. Traditionally, when a MT problem incorporates a three-dimensional (3D) subdomain, the numerical method employed for simulation and inversion was 3D over then entire domain. In here, we propose to take advantage of the possibly lower dimensionality of certain subdomains during the inversion process. By doing so, we obtain significant computational savings (up to 75% in some scenarios) and increased accuracy on the results. We numerically illustrate this method by employing two dimensional (2D) computations based on a multi-goal oriented hp-adaptive Finite Element Method (FEM) that exhibits superior convergence properties. Additionally, we provide a formulation for implementing an efficient adjoint based method for the computation of the derivatives of the impedance, and we show the importance of the (a) proper selection of the inversion variable, and (b) the advantages of using both the Transverse Electric (TE) and Transverse Magnetic (TM) measurements for the proper inversion of MT data.