Maximal L<sup>p</sup> Error Analysis of FEMs for Nonlinear Parabolic Equations with Nonsmooth Coefficients

Maximal L<sup>p</sup> Error Analysis of FEMs for Nonlinear Parabolic Equations with Nonsmooth Coefficients

Year:    2017

International Journal of Numerical Analysis and Modeling, Vol. 14 (2017), Iss. 4-5 : pp. 670–687

Abstract

The paper is concerned with $L^p$ error analysis of semi-discrete Galerkin FEMs for nonlinear parabolic equations. The classical energy approach relies heavily on the strong regularity assumption of the diffusion coefficient, which may not be satisfied in many physical applications. Here we focus our attention on a general nonlinear parabolic equation (or system) in a convex polygon or polyhedron with a nonlinear and Lipschitz continuous diffusion coefficient. We first establish the discrete maximal $L^p$-regularity for a linear parabolic equation with time-dependent diffusion coefficients in $L^∞(0,T;W^{1,N+\epsilon}) \cap C(\overline{\Omega} \times [0,T])$ for some $\epsilon>0$, where $N$ denotes the dimension of the domain, while previous analyses were restricted to the problem with certain stronger regularity assumption. With the proved discrete maximal $L^p$-regularity, we then establish an optimal $L^p$ error estimate and an almost optimal $L^∞$ error estimate of the finite element solution for the nonlinear parabolic equation.

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Journal Article Details

Publisher Name:    Global Science Press

Language:    English

DOI:    https://doi.org/2017-IJNAM-10055

International Journal of Numerical Analysis and Modeling, Vol. 14 (2017), Iss. 4-5 : pp. 670–687

Published online:    2017-01

AMS Subject Headings:    Global Science Press

Copyright:    COPYRIGHT: © Global Science Press

Pages:    18

Keywords:    Finite element method nonlinear parabolic equation polyhedron nonsmooth coefficients maximal $L^p$-regularity optimal error estimate.