Dual formulations of geometric curvature flows and their discretizations

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Gao, Guangwei, Li, Buyang, Tang, Rong
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Gao, Guangwei
Li, Buyang
Tang, Rong
author_facet Gao, Guangwei
Li, Buyang
Tang, Rong
contents We propose new formulations of geometric curvature flows -- referred to as \emph{dual formulations} -- that are equivalent to the original formulations but provide a novel framework for constructing linearly implicit and energy-stable schemes for curvature-driven surface evolution, including mean curvature flow, surface diffusion, and solid-state dewetting on a substrate with a moving contact line. The dual formulations are derived by introducing, at the continuous level, an additional unknown in the form of a dual multiplier. This augmentation does not alter the continuous dynamics but makes the underlying energy-dissipation structure explicit and, in turn, enables a systematic design of linearly implicit discretizations that inherit energy stability. A key feature of this framework is that it accommodates a broad class of artificial tangential motions which can be used to maintain good mesh quality of the computed surfaces. As an illustration, we combine the framework with the minimal-deformation-rate (MDR) tangential motion, leading to what we call the \emph{dual-MDR} scheme. The resulting method is linearly implicit and energy-stable, while retaining the MDR tangential motion to maintain good mesh quality. Extensive numerical experiments demonstrate the convergence of the proposed schemes, their structure-preserving properties, and advantages on representative benchmark problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_18288
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dual formulations of geometric curvature flows and their discretizations
Gao, Guangwei
Li, Buyang
Tang, Rong
Numerical Analysis
35R01, 53C44, 53E40, 65M12, 65M60
We propose new formulations of geometric curvature flows -- referred to as \emph{dual formulations} -- that are equivalent to the original formulations but provide a novel framework for constructing linearly implicit and energy-stable schemes for curvature-driven surface evolution, including mean curvature flow, surface diffusion, and solid-state dewetting on a substrate with a moving contact line. The dual formulations are derived by introducing, at the continuous level, an additional unknown in the form of a dual multiplier. This augmentation does not alter the continuous dynamics but makes the underlying energy-dissipation structure explicit and, in turn, enables a systematic design of linearly implicit discretizations that inherit energy stability. A key feature of this framework is that it accommodates a broad class of artificial tangential motions which can be used to maintain good mesh quality of the computed surfaces. As an illustration, we combine the framework with the minimal-deformation-rate (MDR) tangential motion, leading to what we call the \emph{dual-MDR} scheme. The resulting method is linearly implicit and energy-stable, while retaining the MDR tangential motion to maintain good mesh quality. Extensive numerical experiments demonstrate the convergence of the proposed schemes, their structure-preserving properties, and advantages on representative benchmark problems.
title Dual formulations of geometric curvature flows and their discretizations
topic Numerical Analysis
35R01, 53C44, 53E40, 65M12, 65M60
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18288