A posteriori error estimations for elliptic partial differential equations with small uncertainties

In this article, a finite element error analysis is performed on a class of linear and nonlinear elliptic problems with small uncertain input. Using a perturbation approach, the exact (random) solution is expanded up to a certain order with respect to a parameter that controls the amount of randomness in the input and discretized by finite elements. We start by studying a diffusion (linear) model problem with a random coefficient characterized via a finite number of random variables. The main focus of the article is the derivation of a priori and a posteriori error estimates of the error between the exact and approximate solution in various norms, including goal-oriented error estimation. The analysis is then extended to a class of nonlinear problems. We finally illustrate the theoretical results through numerical examples, along with a comparison with the Stochastic Collocation method in terms of computational costs.

A posteriori error estimation for partial differential equations with random input data

Diane Sylvie Guignard

This thesis is devoted to the derivation of error estimates for partial differential equations with random input data, with a focus on a posteriori error estimates which are the basis for adaptive strategies. Such procedures aim at obtaining an approximation of the solution with a given precision while minimizing the computational costs. If several sources of error come into play, it is then necessary to balance them to avoid unnecessary work. We are first interested in problems that contain small uncertainties approximated by finite elements. The use of perturbation techniques is appropriate in this setting since only few terms in the power series expansion of the exact random solution with respect to a parameter characterizing the amount of randomness in the problem are required to obtain an accurate approximation. The goal is then to perform an error analysis for the finite element approximation of the expansion up to a certain order. First, an elliptic model problem with random diffusion coefficient with affine dependence on a vector of independent random variables is studied. We give both a priori and a posteriori error estimates for the first term in the expansion for various norms of the error. The results are then extended to higher order approximations and to other sources of uncertainty, such as boundary conditions or forcing term. Next, the analysis of nonlinear problems in random domains is proposed, considering the one-dimensional viscous Burgers' equation and the more involved incompressible steady-state Navier-Stokes equations. The domain mapping method is used to transform the equations in random domains into equations in a fixed reference domain with random coefficients. We give conditions on the mapping and the input data under which we can prove the well-posedness of the problems and give a posteriori error estimates for the finite element approximation of the first term in the expansion. Finally, we consider the heat equation with random Robin boundary conditions. For this parabolic problem, the time discretization brings an additional source of error that is accounted for in the error analysis. The second part of this work consists in the analysis of a random elliptic diffusion problem that is approximated in the physical space by the finite element method and in the stochastic space by the stochastic collocation method on a sparse grid. Considering a random diffusion coefficient with affine dependence on a vector of independent random variables, we derive a residual-based a posteriori error estimate that controls the two sources of error. The stochastic error estimator is then used to drive an adaptive sparse grid algorithm which aims at alleviating the so-called curse of dimensionality inherent to tensor grids. Several numerical examples are given to illustrate the performance of the adaptive procedure.

EPFL2016

A posteriori error estimation for the steady Navier-Stokes equations in random domains

Diane Sylvie Guignard, Fabio Nobile, Marco Picasso

We consider finite element error approximations of the steady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations defined on a randomly perturbed domain, the perturbation being small. Introducing a random mapping, these equations are transformed into PDEs on a fixed reference domain with random coefficients. Under suitable assumptions on the random mapping and the input data, in particular the so-called small data assumption, we prove the well-posedness of the problem. We assume then that the mapping depends affinely on L independent random variables and adopt a perturbation approach expanding the solution with respect to a small parameter ε that controls the amount of randomness in the problem. We perform an a posteriori error analysis for the first order approximation error, namely the error between the exact (random) solution and the finite element approximation of the first term in the expansion with respect to ε. Numerical results are given to illustrate the theoretical results and the effectiveness of the error estimators.

Elsevier2017

A posteriori error estimation for partial differential equations with random input data

Diane Sylvie Guignard

EPFL2016