In this work, the dual-weighted residual method is applied to a space-time formulation of nonstationary Stokes and Navier-Stokes flow. Tensor-product space-time finite elements are being used to discretize the variational formulation with discontinuous Galerkin finite elements in time and inf-sup stable Taylor-Hood finite element pairs in space. To estimate the error in a quantity of interest and drive adaptive refinement in time and space, we demonstrate how the dual-weighted residual method for incompressible flow can be extended to a partition of unity based error localization. We derive the space-time Newton method for the Navier-Stokes equations and substantiate our methodology on 2D benchmark problems from computational fluid mechanics.

We study the numerical approximation by space-time finite element methods of a coupled hyperbolic-parabolic system modeling, for instance, poro- and thermoelasticity. The equations are rewritten as a first-order system in time. Discretizations by continuous Galerkin methods in time and inf-sup stable pairs of finite element spaces for the spatial variables are investigated. Optimal order error estimates are proved for the first-order energy of the system's variables. An important ingredient of the estimates is the control of the coupling terms by a tailored testing strategy. The techniques developed here can be generalized to other families of space-time finite element discretizations and related models. The error estimates are confirmed by numerical experiments, also for higher order piecewise polynomials in space and time. The latter lead to algebraic systems with complex block structure and put a facet of challenge on the design of iterative solvers. An efficient solution technique is referenced.

This paper presents a multirate in time approach for coupled flow and transport problems combined with goal-oriented error control based on the Dual Weighted Residual (DWR) method. The focus is on the implementation of the multirate concept regarding different time scales for the underlying subproblems. Key ingredients are an arbitrary degree discontinuous Galerkin time discretization, an a posteriori error representation for the transport problem coupled with flow and the concept of space-time slabs based on tensor-product spaces. From the latter, a space-time mesh adaptation with highly economical grids is developed. The performance of the approach is studied carefully by numerical convergence examples as well as an example of physical interest for convection-dominated transport.

Abstract This paper provides an overview of the new features of the finite element library deal.II, version 9.3.

In this work, a flexible higher-order space–time adaptive finite element approximation of convection-dominated transport with coupled fluid flow is developed and studied. Convection-dominated transport is a challenging subproblem in poromechanics in which coupled transport with flow, chemical reaction and mechanical response in porous media is considered. Key ingredients are the arbitrary degree discontinuous Galerkin time discretization of the primal and dual problems for the Dual Weighted Residual (DWR) approach, an a posteriori error estimation for the transport problem coupled with flow and its implementation in an advanced software architecture. The error estimate allows the separation of the temporal and spatial discretization error contributions which facilitates the simultaneous adjustment of the time and space mesh. The performance of the approach and its software implementation is studied by numerical convergence examples as well as an example of physical interest for convection-dominated cases.

Interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin discretisations (IPDG) and especially the symmetric variant (SIPG) for time-domain wave propagation problems are broadly accepted and widely used due to their advantageous properties. Linear systems with block structure arise by applying space-time discretisations and reducing the global system to time-slab problems. The design of efficient and robust iterative solvers for linear systems from interior penalty discretisations for hyperbolic wave equations is still a challenging task and relies on understanding the properties of the systems. In this work the numerical properties such as the condition number and the distribution of eigenvalues of different representations of the linear systems coming from space-time discretisations for elastic wave propagation are numerically studied. These properties for interior penalty discretisations depend on the penalisation and on the time interval length.

We study the numerical solution of the quasi-static linear Biot equations solved iteratively by the fixed-stress splitting scheme. In each iteration the mechanical and flow problems are decoupled, where the flow problem is solved by keeping an artificial mean stress fixed. This introduces a numerical tuning parameter which can be optimized. We investigate numerically the optimality of the parameter and compare our results with physically and mathematically motivated values from the literature, which commonly only depend on mechanical material parameters. We demonstrate, that the optimal value of the tuning parameter is also affected by the boundary conditions and material parameters associated to the fluid flow problem suggesting the need for the integration of those in further mathematical analyses optimizing the tuning parameter.

The cost- and memory-efficient finite element simulation of multi-physics problems remains a challenging task. Goal-oriented space and time adaptive methods derived from the dual weighted residual method appear to be a shiny key technology. They offer to generate optimal sequences of space–time meshes to minimise costs. This work contributes to the efficient embedding of space–time adaptive methods in an application free way for numerical screening tools. A new approach of flexible data structures and algorithms on them is introduced with the provided software dwr-diffusion of the DTM++.Project.

We study higher-order space-time variational discretisations for modeling complex processes in porous media that include fluid and structure interactions which are of fundamental importance in many engineering fields with applications in subsurface processes, battery-design and biomechanics. For the discretisation in time we deploy discontinuous Galerkin dG(r) and continuous Galerkin cG(q) discretisation families. Moreover we introduce a new coupled dG(r)-cG(q) mixed time discretisation and show numerically the stability advantages in the case of incompatible initial data under massively reduced computational costs. For the discretisation in space we use a mixed finite element method for the flow problem to ensure local mass conservation and a continuous Galerkin method for the mechanics. We consider solving sequentially the coupling of flow and mechanics with the fixed-stress iterative approach such that we can reuse our system solver and preconditioning technologies for the arising block system matrices from higher-order in time discretisations. Numerical experiments show firstly the undeniable advantages of discontinuous Galerkin time discretisations dG(0) and dG(1) over the continuous Galerkin time discretisation cG(1) in the case of incompatible initial data, secondly the advantages of the new coupled dG(1)-cG(1) in time approach in the case of incompatible initial data with massively reduced computational costs and better accuracy compared to the dG(1) time discretisation and thirdly the performance and efficiency differences of the dG(0), cG(1), dG(1) and the new dG(1)-cG(1) fixed-stress solver approaches for a sophisticated and physically relevant three-dimensional numerical example.

The accurate, reliable and efficient numerical approximation of multi-physics processes in heterogeneous porous media with varying media coefficients that include fluid flow and structure interactions is of fundamental importance in energy, environmental, petroleum and biomedical engineering applications fields for instance. Important applications include subsurface compaction drive, carbon sequestration, hydraulic and thermal fracturing and oil recovery. Biomedical applications include the simulation of vibration therapy for osteoporosis processes of trabeculae bones, estimating stress levels induced by tumour growth within the brain or next-generation spinal disc prostheses. Variational space-time methods offers some appreciable advantages such as the flexibility of the triangulation for complex geometries in space and natural local time stepping, the straightforward construction of higher-order approximations and the application of efficient goal-oriented (duality-based) adaptivity concepts. In addition to that, uniform space-time variational methods appear to be advantageous for stability and a priori error analyses of the discrete schemes. Especially (high-order) discontinuous in time approaches appear to have favourable properties due to the weak application of the initial conditions. The development of monolithic multi-physics schemes, instead of iterative coupling methods between the physical problems, is a key component of the research to reduce the modeling error. Special emphasis is on the development of efficient multi-physics and multigrid preconditioning technologies and their implementation. The simulation software DTM++ is a modularised framework written in C++11 and builds on top of deal.II toolchains. The implementation allows parallel simulations from notebooks up to cluster scale.

Variational time discretization schemes are getting of increasing importance for the accurate numerical approximation of transient phenomena. The applicability and value of mixed finite element methods in space for simulating transport processes have been demonstrated in a wide class of works. We consider a family of continuous Galerkin–Petrov time discretization schemes that is combined with a mixed finite element approximation of the spatial variables. The existence and uniqueness of the semidiscrete approximation and of the fully discrete solution are established. For this, the Banach–Nečas–Babuška theorem is applied in a non-standard way. Error estimates with explicit rates of convergence are proved for the scalar and vector-valued variable. An optimal order estimate in space and time is proved by duality techniques for the scalar variable. The convergence rates are analyzed and illustrated by numerical experiments, also on stochastically perturbed meshes.

In this work we present an iterative coupling scheme for the quasi-static Biot system of poroelasticity. For the discretization of the subproblems describing mechanical deformation and single-phase flow space-time finite element methods based on a discontinuous Galerkin approximation of the time variable are used. The spatial approximation of the flow problem is done by mixed finite element methods. The stability of the approach is illustrated by numerical experiments. The presented variational space-time framework is of higher order accuracy such that problems with high fluctuations become feasible. Moreover, it offers promising potential for the simulation of the fully dynamic Biot–Allard system coupling an elastic wave equation for solid’s deformation with single-phase flow for fluid infiltration.

We develop and study numerically two families of variational time discretization schemes for mixed finite element approximations applied to nonstationary diffusion problems. Continuous and discontinuous approximations of the time variable are encountered. The solution of the arising algebraic block system of equations by a Schur complement technique is described and an efficient preconditioner for the iterative solution process is constructed. The expected higher order rates of convergence are demonstrated in numerical experiments. Moreover, superconvergence properties are verified. Further, the efficiency and stability of the approaches are illustrated for a more sophisticated three-dimensional application of practical interest with discontinuous and anisotropic material properties.

In this work we present some new variational space–time discretisations for the scalar-valued acoustic wave equation as a prototype model for the vector-valued elastic wave equation. The second-order hyperbolic equation is rewritten as a first-order in time system of equations for the displacement and velocity field. For the discretisation in time we apply continuous Galerkin–Petrov and discontinuous Galerkin methods, and for the discretisation in space we apply the symmetric interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method. The resulting algebraic system of equations exhibits a block structure. First, it is simplified by some calculations to a linear system for one of the variables and a vector update for the other variable. Using the block diagonal structure of the mass matrix from the discontinuous Galerkin discretisation in space, the reduced system can be condensed further such that the overall linear system can be solved efficiently. The convergence behaviour of the presented schemes is studied carefully by numerical experiments. Moreover, the performance and stability properties of the schemes are illustrated by a more sophisticated problem with complex wave propagation phenomena in heterogeneous media.