Perturbation analysis for the Darcy problem with log-normal permeability

We study the single-phase flow in a saturated, bounded heterogeneous porous medium. We model the permeability as a log-normal random field. We perform a perturbation analysis, expanding the solution in Taylor series. The series is directly computable in the case of a random field parametrized by a finite number of random variables. On the other hand, in the case of an infinite dimensional random field, suitable equations satisfied by the derivatives of the stochastic solution can be derived. We give a theoretical upper bound for the norm of the residual of the Taylor expansion which predicts the divergence of the series as the polynomial degree goes to infinity. We provide a formula to compute the optimal degree for the Taylor polynomial and the maximum achievable accuracy of the perturbation approach. Our theoretical findings are confirmed by numerical experiments in the simple case where the permeability field is described using one random variable

MATHICSE Technical Report : Perturbation analysis for the Darcy problem with log-normal permeability

Francesca Bonizzoni, Fabio Nobile

MATHICSE2013

A sparse grid stochastic collocation method for partial differential equations with random input data

Fabio Nobile

This work proposes and analyzes a Smolyak-type sparse grid stochastic collocation method for the approximation of statistical quantities related to the solution of partial differential equations with random coeffcients and forcing terms ( input data of the model). To compute solution statistics, the sparse grid stochastic collocation method uses approximate solutions, produced here by finite elements, corresponding to a deterministic set of points in the random input space. This naturally requires solving uncoupled deterministic problems as in the Monte Carlo method. If the number of random variables needed to describe the input data is moderately large, full tensor product spaces are computationally expensive to use due to the curse of dimensionality. In this case the sparse grid approach is still expected to be competitive with the classical Monte Carlo method. Therefore, it is of major practical relevance to understand in which situations the sparse grid stochastic collocation method is more efficient than Monte Carlo. This work provides error estimates for the fully discrete solution using L-q norms and analyzes the computational efficiency of the proposed method. In particular, it demonstrates algebraic convergence with respect to the total number of collocation points and quantifies the effect of the dimension of the problem ( number of input random variables) in the final estimates. The derived estimates are then used to compare the method with Monte Carlo, indicating for which problems the former is more efficient than the latter. Computational evidence complements the present theory and shows the effectiveness of the sparse grid stochastic collocation method compared to full tensor and Monte Carlo approaches.

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics2008

An anisotropic sparse grid stochastic collocation method for partial differential equations with random input data

Fabio Nobile

This work proposes and analyzes an anisotropic sparse grid stochastic collocation method for solving partial differential equations with random coefficients and forcing terms ( input data of the model). The method consists of a Galerkin approximation in the space variables and a collocation, in probability space, on sparse tensor product grids utilizing either Clenshaw-Curtis or Gaussian knots. Even in the presence of nonlinearities, the collocation approach leads to the solution of uncoupled deterministic problems, just as in the Monte Carlo method. This work includes a priori and a posteriori procedures to adapt the anisotropy of the sparse grids to each given problem. These procedures seem to be very effective for the problems under study. The proposed method combines the advantages of isotropic sparse collocation with those of anisotropic full tensor product collocation: the first approach is effective for problems depending on random variables which weigh approximately equally in the solution, while the benefits of the latter approach become apparent when solving highly anisotropic problems depending on a relatively small number of random variables, as in the case where input random variables are Karhunen-Loeve truncations of "smooth" random fields. This work also provides a rigorous convergence analysis of the fully discrete problem and demonstrates ( sub) exponential convergence in the asymptotic regime and algebraic convergence in the preasymptotic regime, with respect to the total number of collocation points. It also shows that the anisotropic approximation breaks the curse of dimensionality for a wide set of problems. Numerical examples illustrate the theoretical results and are used to compare this approach with several others, including the standard Monte Carlo. In particular, for moderately large-dimensional problems, the sparse grid approach with a properly chosen anisotropy seems to be very efficient and superior to all examined methods.

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics2008

An anisotropic sparse grid stochastic collocation method for partial differential equations with random input data

Fabio Nobile

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics2008