Mimetic Schemes Research Articles

Forward modeling of direct-current resistivity data on unstructured grids using an adaptive mimetic finite-difference method

An effective solver for the direct-current (DC) resistivity forward-modeling problem should be capable of accommodating arbitrary electrode layouts, adapting the mesh to topography and complex geologic structures, and adaptively refining the mesh to ensure high solution accuracy. We use the capability of the mimetic finite-difference method in naturally accommodating meshes with nonconforming elements to develop adaptive and parallel cell-based (CB) and vertex-based (VB) mimetic schemes for the forward modeling of DC resistivity data on unstructured meshes. A diffusion problem in mixed form and Poisson’s problem are solved in the CB and VB schemes, respectively. The mesh adaptivity involves an iterative h-refinement conducted by a regular subdivision of the marked elements together with a 2-irregularity condition. Goal-oriented residual- and gradient-based error estimators are used to mark the elements for refinement in the CB and VB schemes, respectively. To evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the mimetic schemes, we use two benchmark models with analytical solutions and standard linear and quadratic finite-element solutions. The numerical results for apparent resistivity from both mimetic schemes accurately approximate the reference analytical and numerical values. Furthermore, on similar meshes, the VB mimetic scheme is found to be less demanding than the CB method in terms of computational resource requirement. We also develop a grid-based mesh generation technique based on the body-centered cubic lattice to generate high-quality initial meshes. Using benchmark examples, we validate this mesh generation method and demonstrate its versatility by discretizing a model of a thin dike where a standard Delaunay mesh generator fails to generate a mesh. Moreover, we display the effectiveness of the presented mimetic approach and the grid-based mesh generation technique using a realistic example with topography and parallelization over a large number of sources.

A New Analysis of an Implicit Mimetic Scheme for the Heat Equation

A mimetic finite difference scheme for the transient heat equation under Robin’s conditions is presented. The scheme uses second order gradient and divergence mimetic operators, on a staggered grid, to approximate the space derivatives. The temporal derivative is replaced by a first order backward difference approximation to obtain an implicit formulation. The resulting scheme contains nonstandard finite difference stencils. An original convergence analysis by the matrix’s method shows that the proposed scheme is unconditionally stable. A comparative study against standard finite difference schemes, based on central difference or first order one side approximations, reveals the advantages of our scheme without being its implementation more expensive or difficult to achieve.

Curl Constraint-Preserving Reconstruction and the Guidance it Gives for Mimetic Scheme Design

Several important PDE systems, like magnetohydrodynamics and computational electrodynamics, are known to support involutions where the divergence of a vector field evolves in divergence-free or divergence constraint-preserving fashion. Recently, new classes of PDE systems have emerged for hyperelasticity, compressible multiphase flows, so-called first-order reductions of the Einstein field equations, or a novel first-order hyperbolic reformulation of Schrödinger’s equation, to name a few, where the involution in the PDE supports curl-free or curl constraint-preserving evolution of a vector field. We study the problem of curl constraint-preserving reconstruction as it pertains to the design of mimetic finite volume (FV) WENO-like schemes for PDEs that support a curl-preserving involution. (Some insights into discontinuous Galerkin (DG) schemes are also drawn, though that is not the prime focus of this paper.) This is done for two- and three-dimensional structured mesh problems where we deliver closed form expressions for the reconstruction. The importance of multidimensional Riemann solvers in facilitating the design of such schemes is also documented. In two dimensions, a von Neumann analysis of structure-preserving WENO-like schemes that mimetically satisfy the curl constraints, is also presented. It shows the tremendous value of higher order WENO-like schemes in minimizing dissipation and dispersion for this class of problems. Numerical results are also presented to show that the edge-centered curl-preserving (ECCP) schemes meet their design accuracy. This paper is the first paper that invents non-linearly hybridized curl-preserving reconstruction and integrates it with higher order Godunov philosophy. By its very design, this paper is, therefore, intended to be forward-looking and to set the stage for future work on curl involution-constrained PDEs.

Topography-based local spherical Voronoi grid refinement on classical and moist shallow-water finite-volume models

Abstract. Locally refined grids for global atmospheric models are attractive since they are expected to provide an alternative to solve local phenomena without the requirement of a global high-resolution uniform grid, whose computational cost may be prohibitive. Spherical centroidal Voronoi tessellation (SCVT), as used in the atmospheric Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS), allows a flexible way to build and work with local refinement. In addition, the Andes Range plays a key role in the South American weather, but it is hard to capture its fine-structure dynamics in global models. This paper describes how to generate SCVT grids that are locally refined in South America and that also capture the sharp topography of the Andes Range by defining a density function based on topography and smoothing techniques. We investigate the use of the mimetic finite-volume scheme employed in the MPAS dynamical core on this grid considering the nonlinear classic and moist shallow-water equations on the sphere. We show that the local refinement, even with very smooth transitions from different resolutions, generates spurious numerical inertia–gravity waves that may even numerically destabilize the model. In the moist shallow-water model, wherein physical processes such as precipitation and cloud formation are included, our results show that the local refinement may generate spurious rain that is not observed in uniform-resolution SCVT grids. Fortunately, the spurious waves originate from small-scale grid-related numerical errors and can therefore be mitigated using fourth-order hyperdiffusion. We exploit a grid geometry-based hyperdiffusion that is able to stabilize spurious waves and has very little impact on the total energy conservation. We show that, in some cases, the clouds are better represented in a variable-resolution grid when compared to a respective uniform-resolution grid with the same number of cells, while in other cases, grid effects can affect the cloud and rain representation.

Artificial Compressibility Methods for the Incompressible Navier–Stokes Equations Using Lowest-Order Face-Based Schemes on Polytopal Meshes

Abstract We investigate artificial compressibility (AC) techniques for the time discretization of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The space discretization is based on a lowest-order face-based scheme supporting polytopal meshes, namely discrete velocities are attached to the mesh faces and cells, whereas discrete pressures are attached to the mesh cells. This face-based scheme can be embedded into the framework of hybrid mixed mimetic schemes and gradient schemes, and has close links to the lowest-order version of hybrid high-order methods devised for the steady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The AC time-stepping uncouples at each time step the velocity update from the pressure update. The performances of this approach are compared against those of the more traditional monolithic approach which maintains the velocity-pressure coupling at each time step. We consider both first-order and second-order time schemes and either an implicit or an explicit treatment of the nonlinear convection term. We investigate numerically the CFL stability restriction resulting from an explicit treatment, both on Cartesian and polytopal meshes. Finally, numerical tests on large 3D polytopal meshes highlight the efficiency of the AC approach and the benefits of using second-order schemes whenever accurate discrete solutions are to be attained.

Forward modelling of gravity data on unstructured grids using an adaptive mimetic finite-difference method

One of the techniques to optimize the gradient-based inversion of geophysical gravity data is to deal with the large and dense Jacobian matrices implicitly. This is made possible by solving the normal systems iteratively and to use pseudo-forward problems to calculate the effect of the Jacobian matrices. For this, numerical forward solvers should be used instead of analytical solvers. In this study, we propose mimetic finite-difference schemes for the solution of the forward gravity problem on unstructured grids. While the mimetic finite-difference method shares many traits with the finite-element and finite-volume methods, it has the advantage of naturally accommodating grids with arbitrary polyhedral elements. We use cell-based and vertex-based mimetic finite-difference schemes to solve a diffusion problem in mixed form, and Poisson's problem, respectively. The cell-based scheme is solved for the gravitational potential and attraction at the centroids and the facets of the elements, respectively, and the vertex-based scheme is solved for the potential at the vertices of the elements. We compare these mimetic finite-difference schemes with cell-based and vertex-based finite-volume schemes and a vertex-based finite-element scheme, in terms of accuracy of the potential. We then utilize the versatility of the mimetic finite-difference method, in accommodating arbitrary elements, and develop an adaptive mesh refinement tool. The mesh adaptivity is performed by an iterative h-refinement where goal-oriented error estimates are used to mark the elements for refinement. The marked elements are decomposed into new tetrahedra by regular subdivision. Since arbitrary polyhedra are naturally permitted in the mimetic finite-difference method, the added nodes are not regarded as hanging nodes, and therefore, any modification of the scheme or extra refinement is avoided. This characteristic allows preserving the quality of the initial grid and simplifying the refinement procedure. We demonstrate the practicality of the presented mesh adaptivity for the forward modelling of gravity and gravity gradient data using realistic geological models. We show that the cell-based mimetic scheme is more efficient than the vertex-based scheme in terms of computational resources. We also demonstrate that in the presence of irregular interfaces in the input domain, the regular refinement approach, presented in this study, is more reliable than a standard mesh regeneration technique.

Forward modelling of geophysical electromagnetic data on unstructured grids using an adaptive mimetic finite-difference method

While the mimetic finite-difference method shares many similarities with the finite-element and finite-volume methods, it has the advantage of naturally accommodating grids with arbitrary polyhedral elements. In this study, we use this attribute to develop an adaptive scheme for the solution of the geophysical electromagnetic modelling problem on unstructured grids. Starting with an initial tetrahedral grid, our mesh adaptivity implements an iterative h-refinement where a residual- and jump-based goal-oriented error estimator is used to mark a certain portion of the elements. The marked elements are decomposed into new tetrahedra by regular subdivision, creating an octree-like unstructured grid. Since arbitrary polyhedra are naturally permitted in the mimetic finite-difference method, the added nodes are not regarded as hanging nodes and hence any level of non-conformity can be implemented without a modification to the mimetic scheme. In this study, we consider 2-irregularity where two levels of non-conformity between the adjacent elements is permitted. We use a total field approach where the electric field is defined at the edges of the polyhedral elements and the electromagnetic source may have an arbitrary shape and location. The accuracy of the mimetic scheme and the effectiveness of the proposed mesh adaptivity are verified using benchmark and realistic examples that represent various magnetotelluric and controlled-source survey scenarios. The mesh adaptivity generates grids with refinement generally concentrated at the transmitter and receiver locations and the interfaces of materials with contrasting conductivities, and the mimetic finite-difference solutions have good agreement with the reference numerical and real data. We also demonstrate the practicality of our method using an example with an analytical solution and comparison with a standard mesh regeneration technique. The results show that our mesh adaptivity procedure can result in a higher accuracy, with similar numbers of elements, when compared with the mesh regeneration approach. Also, using a generic sparse direct solver, our method is found to be more efficient than the mesh regeneration approach in terms of computation time and memory usage. Moreover, a comparison between 1- and 2-irregularity shows the higher efficiency of the latter in terms of the number of elements required to reach a certain level of accuracy.

High-order mimetic finite differences for anisotropic elliptic equations

Fractured geologic media can yield anisotropies in solute and heat diffusion due to the formation of changing fluid network connectivity in a rock matrix. In this paper we model Steady-state anisotropic heat diffusion as an elliptic partial differential equation with a symmetric positive definite second rank thermal conductivity tensor. We model diffusive flux as a non-diagonal symmetric tensor, which can potentially have jump discontinuities that are not aligned with the coordinate axis. The presence of jump discontinuities due to joints and faults in a rock matrix impose difficulties on existing, well-established numerical schemes that model diffusive transport. In our scheme, we model diffusive flux using mimetic finite difference operators, which are discrete analogs of the classical continuous differential operators. We introduce a 2nd- and 4th-order mimetic formulation for computing anisotropic fluxes. Numerical results demonstrate our formulation yields a substantial improvement compared to similar mimetic schemes.

An energy-preserving level set method for multiphase flows

The computation of multiphase flows presents a subtle energetic equilibrium between potential (i.e., surface) and kinetic energies. The use of traditional interface-capturing schemes provides no control over such a dynamic balance. In the spirit of the well-known symmetry-preserving and mimetic schemes, whose physics-compatible discretizations rely upon preserving the underlying mathematical structures of the space, we identify the corresponding structure and propose a new discretization strategy for curvature. The new scheme ensures conservation of mechanical energy (i.e., surface plus kinetic) up to temporal integration. Inviscid numerical simulations are performed to show the robustness of such a method.

Globally constraint-preserving FR/DG scheme for Maxwell's equations at all orders

Computational electrodynamics (CED), the numerical solution of Maxwell's equations, plays an incredibly important role in several problems in science and engineering. High accuracy solutions are desired, and the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is one of the better ways of delivering high accuracy in numerical CED. Maxwell's equations have a pair of involution constraints for which mimetic schemes that globally satisfy the constraints at a discrete level are highly desirable. Balsara and Käppeli (2019) presented a von Neumann stability analysis of globally constraint-preserving DG schemes for CED up to fourth order. That paper was focused on developing the theory and documenting the superior dissipation and dispersion of DGTD schemes in media with constant permittivity and permeability. In this paper we present working DGTD schemes for CED that go up to fifth order of accuracy and analyze their performance when permittivity and permeability vary strongly in space.Our DGTD schemes achieve constraint preservation by collocating the electric displacement and magnetic induction as well as their higher order modes in the faces of the mesh. Our first finding is that at fourth and higher orders of accuracy, one has to evolve some zone-centered modes in addition to the face-centered modes. It is well-known that the limiting step in DG schemes causes a reduction of the optimal accuracy of the scheme; though the schemes still retain their formal order of accuracy with WENO-type limiters. In this paper, we document simulations where permittivity and permeability vary by almost an order of magnitude without requiring any limiting of the DG scheme. This very favorable second finding ensures that DGTD schemes retain optimal accuracy even in the presence of large spatial variations in permittivity and permeability. We also study the conservation of electromagnetic energy in these problems. Our third finding shows that the electromagnetic energy is conserved very well even when permittivity and permeability vary strongly in space; as long as the conductivity is zero.

Schematy mimetyczne realizowane w gestach

The aim of the article is to discuss the concept of mimetic schemas, proposed by Jordan Zlatev, and its application in the description of the semantics of iconic gestures. The mimetic schemas are characterized by greater details, and therefore a smaller degree of abstraction than the image schemas, which are most frequently used in the study of metaphors and gestures. The article will discuss the properties of mimetic schemes and their comparison with image schemas. The analytical part will present the results of research aimed at extracting these schemas based on the observation of gestures and statements of participants during three task sessions.

Family of convergent numerical schemes for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

This paper presents the common mathematical features which are leading to convergence properties for a family of numerical schemes applied to the discretisation of the steady and transient incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with homogeneous Dirichlet’s boundary conditions. This family includes the Taylor–Hood scheme, the MAC scheme, the Crouzeix–Raviart scheme generalised into the Hybrid Mixed Mimetic scheme, which can be combined with a variety of discretisations for the nonlinear convection term, each of them being more efficient than the others in particular situations. We provide tools for analysing all the combined methods, and proving their convergence to a weak solution of the problem.

The arbitrary order mimetic finite difference method for a diffusion equation with a non-symmetric diffusion tensor

We present the arbitrary order mimetic finite difference (MFD) discretization for the diffusion equation with non-symmetric tensorial diffusion coefficient in a mixed formulation on general polygonal meshes. The diffusion tensor is assumed to be positive definite. The asymmetry of the diffusion tensor requires changes to the standard MFD construction. We present new approach for the construction that guarantees positive definiteness of the non-symmetric mass matrix in the space of discrete velocities. The numerically observed convergence rate for the scalar quantity matches the predicted one in the case of the lowest order mimetic scheme. For higher orders schemes, we observed super-convergence by one order for the scalar variable which is consistent with the previously published result for a symmetric diffusion tensor. The new scheme was also tested on a time-dependent problem modeling the Hall effect in the resistive magnetohydrodynamics.

Convergence Analysis of the mimetic Finite Difference Method for Elliptic Problems with Staggered Discretizations of Diffusion Coefficients

We study the convergence of the new family of mimetic finite difference schemes for linear diffusion problems recently proposed in [K. Lipnikov, G. Manzini, J. D. Moulton, and M. Shashkov, J. Comput. Phys, 305 (2016), pp. 111--126]. In contrast to the conventional approach, the diffusion coefficient enters both the primary mimetic operator, i.e., the discrete divergence, and the inner product in the space of gradients. The diffusion coefficient is therefore evaluated on different mesh locations, i.e., inside mesh cells and on mesh faces. Such a staggered discretization may provide the flexibility necessary for future development of efficient numerical schemes for nonlinear problems, especially for problems with degenerate coefficients. These new mimetic schemes preserve symmetry and positive-definiteness of the continuum problem, which allow us to use efficient algebraic solvers such as the preconditioned conjugate gradient method. We show that these schemes are inf-sup stable and establish a priori error...

A performance analysis of a mimetic finite difference scheme for acoustic wave propagation on GPU platforms

SummaryRealistic applications of numerical modeling of acoustic wave dynamics usually demand high‐performance computing because of the large size of study domains and demanding accuracy requirements on simulation results. Forward modeling of seismic motion on a given subsurface geological structure is by itself a good example of such applications, and when used as a component of seismic inversion tools or as a guide for the design of seismic surveys, its computational cost increases enormously. In the case of finite difference methods (or any other volumen‐discretization scheme), memory and computing demands rise with grid refinement, which may be necessary to reduce errors on numerical wave patterns and better capture target physical devices. In this work, we present several implementations of a mimetic finite difference method for the simulation of acoustic wave propagation on highly dense staggered grids. These implementations evolve as different optimization strategies are employed starting from appropriate setting of compilation flags, code vectorization by using streaming SIMD extensions Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), CPU parallelization by exploiting the Open Multi‐Processing framework to the final code parallelization on graphics processing unit platforms. We present and discuss the increasing processing speed up of this mimetic scheme achieved by the gradual implementation and testing of all these performance optimizations. In terms of simulation times, the performance of our graphics processing unit parallel implementations is consistently better than the best CPU version. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The mimetic finite difference method for elliptic and parabolic problems with a staggered discretization of diffusion coefficient

Numerical schemes for nonlinear parabolic equations based on the harmonic averaging of cell-centered diffusion coefficients break down when some of these coefficients go to zero or their ratio grows. To tackle this problem, we propose new mimetic finite difference schemes that use a staggered discretization of the diffusion coefficient. The primary mimetic operator approximates div ( k ⋅ ) ; the derived (dual) mimetic operator approximates − ∇ ( ⋅ ) . The new mimetic schemes preserve symmetry and positive-definiteness of the continuum problem which allows us to use algebraic solvers with optimal complexity. We perform detailed numerical analysis of the new schemes for linear elliptic problems and a specially designed linear parabolic problem that has solution dynamics typical for nonlinear problems. We show that the new schemes are competitive with the state-of-the-art schemes for steady-state problems but provide much more accurate solution dynamics for the transient problem.

A new mimetic scheme for the acoustic wave equation

A new mimetic finite difference scheme for solving the acoustic wave equation is presented. It combines a novel second order tensor mimetic discretizations in space and a leapfrog approximation in time to produce an explicit multidimensional scheme. Convergence analysis of the new scheme on a staggered grid shows that it can take larger time steps than standard finite difference schemes based on ghost points formulation. A set of numerical test problems gives evidence of the versatility of the new mimetic scheme for handling general boundary conditions.

New perspectives on polygonal and polyhedral finite element methods

Generalized barycentric coordinates such as Wachspress and mean value coordinates have been used in polygonal and polyhedral finite element methods. Recently, mimetic finite difference schemes were cast within a variational framework, and a consistent and stable finite element method on arbitrary polygonal meshes was devised. The method was coined as the virtual element method (VEM), since it did not require the explicit construction of basis functions. This advance provides a more in-depth understanding of mimetic schemes, and also endows polygonal-based Galerkin methods with greater flexibility than three-node and four-node finite element methods. In the VEM, a projection operator is used to realize the decomposition of the stiffness matrix into two terms: a consistent matrix that is known, and a stability matrix that must be positive semi-definite and which is only required to scale like the consistent matrix. In this paper, we first present an overview of previous developments on conforming polygonal and polyhedral finite elements, and then appeal to the exact decomposition in the VEM to obtain a robust and efficient generalized barycentric coordinate-based Galerkin method on polygonal and polyhedral elements. The consistent matrix of the VEM is adopted, and numerical quadrature with generalized barycentric coordinates is used to compute the stability matrix. This facilitates post-processing of field variables and visualization in the VEM, and on the other hand, provides a means to exactly satisfy the patch test with efficient numerical integration in polygonal and polyhedral finite elements. We present numerical examples that demonstrate the sound accuracy and performance of the proposed method. For Poisson problems in ℝ2 and ℝ3, we establish that linearly complete generalized barycentric interpolants deliver optimal rates of convergence in the L2-norm and the H1-seminorm.

Mimetic seismic wave modeling including topography on deformed staggered grids

Finite-difference methods for modeling seismic waves are known to be inaccurate when including a realistic topography, due to the large dispersion errors that appear in the modelled surface waves and the scattering introduced by the staircase approximation to the topography. As a consequence, alternatives to finite-difference methods have been proposed to circumvent these issues. We present a new numerical scheme for 3D elastic wave propagation in the presence of strong topography. This finite-difference scheme is based upon a staggered grid of the Lebedev type, or fully staggered grid (FSG). It uses a grid deformation strategy to make a regular Cartesian grid conform to a topographic surface. In addition, the scheme uses a mimetic approach to accurately solve the free-surface condition and hence allows for a less restrictive grid spacing criterion in the computations. The scheme can use high-order operators for the spatial derivatives and obtain low-dispersion results with as few as six points per minimum wavelength. A series of tests in 2D and 3D scenarios, in which our results are compared to analytical and numerical solutions obtained with other numerical approaches, validate the accuracy of our scheme. The resulting FSG mimetic scheme allows for accurate and efficient seismic wave modelling in the presence of very rough topographies with the advantage of using a structured staggered grid.

A high-order mimetic method on unstructured polyhedral meshes for the diffusion equation

We present a new family of mimetic finite difference schemes for solving elliptic partial differential equations in the primal form on unstructured polyhedral meshes. These mimetic discretizations are built to satisfy local consistency and stability conditions. The consistency condition is an exactness property, i.e., the mimetic schemes are exact when the solution is a polynomial of an assigned degree. The stability condition ensures the well-posedness of the method. The degrees of freedom are the solution moments on mesh faces and inside mesh cells. Higher order schemes are built using higher order moments. The developed schemes are verified numerically on diffusion problems with constant and spatially variable (possibly, discontinuous) tensorial coefficients.