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Recent results prove that Nédélec edge elements do not achieve optimal rate of approximation on general quadrilateral meshes. In particular, lowest order edge elements provide stable but non-convergent approximation of Maxwell's eigenvalues. In this paper we analyze a modification of standard edge element that restores the optimality of the convergence. This modification is based on a projection technique that can be interpreted as a reduced integration procedure.

Small deformations of a viscoelastic body are considered through the linear Maxwell and Kelvin–Voigt models in the quasi-static equilibrium. A robust mixed finite element method, enforcing the symmetry of the stress tensor weakly, is proposed for these equations on simplicial tessellations in two and three dimensions. A priori error estimates are derived and numerical experiments presented. The approach can be applied to general models for linear viscoelasticity and thus offers a unified framework.

P. Galenko et al. proposed a Cahn–Hilliard model with inertial term in order to model spinodal decomposition caused by deep supercooling in certain glasses. Here we analyze a finite element space semidiscretization of their model, based on a scheme introduced by C. M. Elliott et al. for the Cahn–Hilliard equation. We prove that the semidiscrete solution converges weakly to the continuous solution as the discretization parameter tends to 0. We obtain optimal a priori error estimates in energy norm and related norms, assuming enough regularity on the solution. We also show that the semidiscrete solution converges to an equilibrium as time goes to infinity and we give a simple finite difference version of the scheme.

In this paper, we introduce new finite elements to approximate the Hellinger Reissner formulation of elasticity. The elements are the vector-valued tangential continuous Nédélec elements for the displacements, and symmetric tensor-valued, normal–normal continuous elements for the stresses. These elements do neither suffer from volume locking as the Poisson ratio approaches ½, nor suffer from shear locking when anisotropic elements are used for thin structures. We present the analysis of the new elements, discuss their implementation, and give numerical results.

We consider the finite element solution of the vector Laplace equation on a domain in two dimensions. For various choices of boundary conditions, it is known that a mixed finite element method, in which the rotation of the solution is introduced as a second unknown, is advantageous, and appropriate choices of mixed finite element spaces lead to a stable, optimally convergent discretization. However, the theory that leads to these conclusions does not apply to the case of Dirichlet boundary conditions, in which both components of the solution vanish on the boundary. We show, by computational example, that indeed such mixed finite elements do not perform optimally in this case, and we analyze the suboptimal convergence that does occur. As we indicate, these results have implications for the solution of the biharmonic equation and of the Stokes equations using a mixed formulation involving the vorticity.

We introduce and analyze two new semi-discrete numerical methods for the multi-dimensional Vlasov–Poisson system. The schemes are constructed by combining a discontinuous Galerkin approximation to the Vlasov equation together with a mixed finite element method for the Poisson problem. We show optimal error estimates in the case of smooth compactly supported initial data. We propose a scheme that preserves the total energy of the system.

This work introduces and analyzes new primal and dual-mixed finite element methods for deformable image registration, in which the regularizer has a nontrivial kernel, and constructed under minimal assumptions of the registration model: Lipschitz continuity of the similarity measure and ellipticity of the regularizer on the orthogonal complement of its kernel. The aforementioned singularity of the regularizer suggests to modify the original model by incorporating the additional degrees of freedom arising from its kernel, thus granting ellipticity of the former on the whole solution space. In this way, we are able to prove well-posedness of the resulting extended primal and dual-mixed continuous formulations, as well as of the associated Galerkin schemes. A priori error estimates and corresponding rates of convergence are also established for both discrete methods. Finally, we provide numerical examples confronting our formulations with the standard ones, which prove our finite element methods to be particularly more efficient on the registration of translations and rotations, in addition for the dual-mixed approach to be much more suitable for the quasi-incompressible case, and all the above without losing the flexibility to solve problems arising from more realistic scenarios such as the image registration of the human brain.

We consider a controllability method for the time-periodic solution of the two-dimensional scalar wave equation with a first order absorbing boundary condition describing the scattering of a time-harmonic incident wave by a sound-soft obstacle. Solution of the time-harmonic equation is equivalent to finding a periodic solution for the corresponding time-dependent wave equation. We formulate the problem as an exact controllability one and solve the wave equation in time-domain. In a mixed formulation we look for solutions u = (v, p)^T. The use of mixed formulation allows us to set the related controllability problem in (L²(Ω))^d+1, a space of square-integrable functions in dimension d + 1. No preconditioning is needed when solving this with conjugate gradient method. We present numerical results concerning performance and convergence properties of the method.

Until recently, linear analysis has been considered sufficient for the static analysis of structural frames. Nonlinear effects, if included, have tended to be considered at the element level rather than at the complete structure level. However, recent changes in codes of practice have been introduced that require a more complete nonlinear analysis to be performed. While these requirements should lead to a more accurate analysis, there has been little guidance given to the type and implementation of such an analysis. Moreover, different implementations have been adopted by various commercial software. In this paper, we discuss the use of mixed finite elements for the large deflection analysis of two-dimensional frames including shear deformation. In particular, we develop a family of elements that can be combined with different nonlinear models and discuss the effects of various assumptions and approximations that are commonly used to simplify the analysis. Examples are given to illustrate the various issues discussed.

The numerical solution of the elastodynamic problem with kinematic boundary conditions is considered using mixed finite elements for the space discretization and a staggered leap-frog scheme for the discretization in time. The stability of the numerical scheme is shown under the usual CFL condition. Using the general form of Robin-type boundary conditions some cases of debonding and the resulting acoustic emission are studied. The methodology presented finds applications to geophysics such as in seismic waves simulation with dynamic rupture and energy release. In this paper, we focus on problems of fracture occurring at the interface of composite materials. Our goal is to study both the mechanism of crack initiation and propagation, as well as the acoustic emission of the released structure-borne energy which may be used in structural health monitoring and prognosis applications.