A Variational Discretization Method for Mean Curvature Flows by the Onsager Principle

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Autori principali: Liu, Yihe, Xu, Xianmin
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Liu, Yihe
Xu, Xianmin
author_facet Liu, Yihe
Xu, Xianmin
contents The mean curvature flow describes the evolution of a surface (a curve) with normal velocity proportional to the local mean curvature. It has many applications in mathematics, science and engineering. In this paper, we develop a numerical method for mean curvature flows by using the Onsager principle as an approximation tool. We first show that the mean curvature flow can be derived naturally from the Onsager variational principle. Then we consider a piecewise linear approximation of the curve and derive a discrete geometric flow. The discrete flow is described by a system of ordinary differential equations for the nodes of the discrete curve. We prove that the discrete system preserve the energy dissipation structure in the framework of the Onsager principle and this implies the energy decreasing property. The ODE system can be solved by the improved Euler scheme and this leads to an efficient fully discrete scheme. We first consider the method for a simple mean curvature flow and then extend it to the volume preserving mean curvature flow and also a wetting problem on substrates. Numerical examples show that the method has optimal convergence rate and works well for all the three problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_11935
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Variational Discretization Method for Mean Curvature Flows by the Onsager Principle
Liu, Yihe
Xu, Xianmin
Numerical Analysis
The mean curvature flow describes the evolution of a surface (a curve) with normal velocity proportional to the local mean curvature. It has many applications in mathematics, science and engineering. In this paper, we develop a numerical method for mean curvature flows by using the Onsager principle as an approximation tool. We first show that the mean curvature flow can be derived naturally from the Onsager variational principle. Then we consider a piecewise linear approximation of the curve and derive a discrete geometric flow. The discrete flow is described by a system of ordinary differential equations for the nodes of the discrete curve. We prove that the discrete system preserve the energy dissipation structure in the framework of the Onsager principle and this implies the energy decreasing property. The ODE system can be solved by the improved Euler scheme and this leads to an efficient fully discrete scheme. We first consider the method for a simple mean curvature flow and then extend it to the volume preserving mean curvature flow and also a wetting problem on substrates. Numerical examples show that the method has optimal convergence rate and works well for all the three problems.
title A Variational Discretization Method for Mean Curvature Flows by the Onsager Principle
topic Numerical Analysis
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.11935