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An interface-fitted adaptive mesh method for elliptic problems and its application in free interface problems with surface tension

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Abstract

This work presents a novel two-dimensional interface-fitted adaptive mesh method to solve elliptic problems of jump conditions across the interface, and its application in free interface problems with surface tension. The interface-fitted mesh is achieved by two operations: (i) the projection of mesh nodes onto the interface and (ii) the insertion of mesh nodes right on the interface. The interface-fitting technique is combined with an existing adaptive mesh approach which uses addition/subtraction and displacement of mesh nodes. We develop a simple piecewise linear finite element method built on this interface-fitted mesh and prove its almost optimal convergence for elliptic problems with jump conditions across the interface. Applications to two free interface problems, a sheared drop in Stokes flow and the growth of a solid tumor, are presented. In these applications, the interface surface tension serves as the jump condition or the Dirichlet boundary condition of the pressure, and the pressure is solved with the interface-fitted finite element method developed in this work. In this study, a level-set function is used to capture the evolution of the interface and provide the interface location for the interface fitting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, 48859, USA

    Xiaoming Zheng

  2. Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA

    John Lowengrub

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  1. Xiaoming Zheng
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  2. John Lowengrub
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Correspondence to Xiaoming Zheng.

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Communicated by: Axel Voigt

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Zheng, X., Lowengrub, J. An interface-fitted adaptive mesh method for elliptic problems and its application in free interface problems with surface tension. Adv Comput Math 42, 1225–1257 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10444-016-9460-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10444-016-9460-5

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