A $C^1$ virtual element method for the Cahn-Hilliard equation with polygonal meshes

Keywords

Advanced Numerical Methods for Scientific Computing
Code:
12/2015
Title:
A $C^1$ virtual element method for the Cahn-Hilliard equation with polygonal meshes
Date:
Monday 16th March 2015
Author(s):
Antonietti, P. F.; Beirao da Veiga, L.; Scacchi, S.; Verani, M.
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Abstract:
In this paper we develop an evolution of the $C^1$ virtual elements of minimal degree for the approximation of the Cahn-Hilliard equation. The proposed method has the advantage of being conforming in $H^2$ and making use of a very simple set of degrees of freedom, namely 3 degrees of freedom per vertex of the mesh. Moreover, although the present method is new also on triangles, it can make use of general polygonal meshes. As a theoretical and practical support, we prove the convergence of the semi-discrete scheme and investigate the performance of the fully discrete scheme through a set of numerical tests.