A higher order pressure-stabilized virtual element formulation for the Stokes-Poisson-Boltzmann equations

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Mishra, Sudheer, Natarajan, Sundararajan, Natarajan, E., Manzini, Gianmarco
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Mishra, Sudheer
Natarajan, Sundararajan
Natarajan, E.
Manzini, Gianmarco
author_facet Mishra, Sudheer
Natarajan, Sundararajan
Natarajan, E.
Manzini, Gianmarco
contents Electrokinetic phenomena in nanopore sensors and microfluidic devices require accurate simulation of coupled fluid-electrostatic interactions in geometrically complex domains with irregular boundaries and adaptive mesh refinement. We develop an equal-order virtual element method for the Stokes--Poisson--Boltzmann equations that naturally handles general polygonal meshes, including meshes with hanging nodes, without requiring special treatment or remeshing. The key innovation is a residual-based pressure stabilization scheme derived by reformulating the Laplacian drag force in the momentum equation as a weighted advection term involving the nonlinear Poisson--Boltzmann equation, thereby eliminating second-order derivative terms while maintaining theoretical rigor. Well-posedness of the coupled stabilized problem is established using the Banach and Brouwer fixed-point theorems under sufficiently small data assumptions, and optimal a priori error estimates are derived in the energy norm with convergence rates of order $\mathcal{O}(h^k)$ for approximation degree $k \geq 1$. Numerical experiments on diverse polygonal meshes -- including distorted elements, non-convex polygons, Voronoi tessellations, and configurations with hanging nodes -- confirm optimal convergence rates, validating theoretical predictions. Applications to electro-osmotic flows in nanopore sensors with complex obstacle geometries illustrate the method's practical utility for engineering simulations. Compared to Taylor--Hood finite element formulations, the equal-order approach simplifies implementation through uniform polynomial treatment of all fields and offers native support for general polygonal elements.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_16538
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A higher order pressure-stabilized virtual element formulation for the Stokes-Poisson-Boltzmann equations
Mishra, Sudheer
Natarajan, Sundararajan
Natarajan, E.
Manzini, Gianmarco
Numerical Analysis
Electrokinetic phenomena in nanopore sensors and microfluidic devices require accurate simulation of coupled fluid-electrostatic interactions in geometrically complex domains with irregular boundaries and adaptive mesh refinement. We develop an equal-order virtual element method for the Stokes--Poisson--Boltzmann equations that naturally handles general polygonal meshes, including meshes with hanging nodes, without requiring special treatment or remeshing. The key innovation is a residual-based pressure stabilization scheme derived by reformulating the Laplacian drag force in the momentum equation as a weighted advection term involving the nonlinear Poisson--Boltzmann equation, thereby eliminating second-order derivative terms while maintaining theoretical rigor. Well-posedness of the coupled stabilized problem is established using the Banach and Brouwer fixed-point theorems under sufficiently small data assumptions, and optimal a priori error estimates are derived in the energy norm with convergence rates of order $\mathcal{O}(h^k)$ for approximation degree $k \geq 1$. Numerical experiments on diverse polygonal meshes -- including distorted elements, non-convex polygons, Voronoi tessellations, and configurations with hanging nodes -- confirm optimal convergence rates, validating theoretical predictions. Applications to electro-osmotic flows in nanopore sensors with complex obstacle geometries illustrate the method's practical utility for engineering simulations. Compared to Taylor--Hood finite element formulations, the equal-order approach simplifies implementation through uniform polynomial treatment of all fields and offers native support for general polygonal elements.
title A higher order pressure-stabilized virtual element formulation for the Stokes-Poisson-Boltzmann equations
topic Numerical Analysis
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16538