Energy minimisation using overlapping tensor-product free-knot B-splines

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Magueresse, Alexandre, Badia, Santiago
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916917410791424
author Magueresse, Alexandre
Badia, Santiago
author_facet Magueresse, Alexandre
Badia, Santiago
contents Accurately solving PDEs with localised features requires refined meshes that adapt to the solution. Traditional numerical methods, such as finite elements, are linear in nature and often ineffective for such problems, as the mesh is not tailored to the solution. Adaptive strategies, such as $h$- and $p$-refinement, improve efficiency by sequentially refining the mesh based on a posteriori error estimates. However, these methods are geometrically rigid -- limited to specific refinement rules -- and require solving the problem on a sequence of adaptive meshes, which can be computationally expensive. Moreover, the design of effective a posteriori error estimates is problem-dependent and non-trivial. In this work, we study a specific nonlinear approximation scheme based on overlapping tensor-product free-knot B-spline patches, where knot positions act as nonlinear parameters controlling the geometry of the discretisation. We analyse the corresponding energy minimisation problem for linear, self-adjoint elliptic PDEs, showing that, under a mild mesh size condition, the discrete energy satisfies the structural properties required for the local and global convergence of the constrained optimisation scheme developed in our companion work [Magueresse, Badia (2025, arXiv:2508.17687)]. This establishes a direct connection between the two analyses: the adaptive free-knot B-spline space considered here fits into the abstract framework, ensuring convergence of projected gradient descent for the joint optimisation of knot positions and coefficients. Numerical experiments illustrate the method's efficiency and its ability to capture localised features with significantly fewer degrees of freedom than standard finite element discretisations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_17705
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Energy minimisation using overlapping tensor-product free-knot B-splines
Magueresse, Alexandre
Badia, Santiago
Numerical Analysis
65N50, 65N12, 90C26
G.1.2; G.1.6; G.1.8
Accurately solving PDEs with localised features requires refined meshes that adapt to the solution. Traditional numerical methods, such as finite elements, are linear in nature and often ineffective for such problems, as the mesh is not tailored to the solution. Adaptive strategies, such as $h$- and $p$-refinement, improve efficiency by sequentially refining the mesh based on a posteriori error estimates. However, these methods are geometrically rigid -- limited to specific refinement rules -- and require solving the problem on a sequence of adaptive meshes, which can be computationally expensive. Moreover, the design of effective a posteriori error estimates is problem-dependent and non-trivial. In this work, we study a specific nonlinear approximation scheme based on overlapping tensor-product free-knot B-spline patches, where knot positions act as nonlinear parameters controlling the geometry of the discretisation. We analyse the corresponding energy minimisation problem for linear, self-adjoint elliptic PDEs, showing that, under a mild mesh size condition, the discrete energy satisfies the structural properties required for the local and global convergence of the constrained optimisation scheme developed in our companion work [Magueresse, Badia (2025, arXiv:2508.17687)]. This establishes a direct connection between the two analyses: the adaptive free-knot B-spline space considered here fits into the abstract framework, ensuring convergence of projected gradient descent for the joint optimisation of knot positions and coefficients. Numerical experiments illustrate the method's efficiency and its ability to capture localised features with significantly fewer degrees of freedom than standard finite element discretisations.
title Energy minimisation using overlapping tensor-product free-knot B-splines
topic Numerical Analysis
65N50, 65N12, 90C26
G.1.2; G.1.6; G.1.8
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17705