Conforming and nonconforming finite element methods for biharmonic inverse source problem

This paper deals with the numerical approximation of the biharmonic inverse source problem in an abstract setting in which the measurement data is finite-dimensional. This unified framework in particular covers the conforming and nonconforming finite element methods (FEMs). The inverse problem is analysed through the forward problem. Error estimate for the forward solution is derived in an abstract set-up that applies to conforming and Morley nonconforming FEMs. Since the inverse problem is ill-posed, Tikhonov regularisation is considered to obtain a stable approximate solution. Error estimate is established for the regularised solution for different regularisation schemes. Numerical results that confirm the theoretical results are also presented.

Two low-order nonconforming finite element methods for the Stokes flow in three dimensions

In this paper, we propose two low-order nonconforming finite element methods (FEMs) for the three-dimensional Stokes flow that generalize the nonconforming FEM of Kouhia & Stenberg (1995, A linear nonconforming finite element method for nearly incompressible elasticity and Stokes flow. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng, 124, 195–212). The finite element spaces proposed in this paper consist of two globally continuous components (one piecewise affine and one enriched component) and one component that is continuous at the midpoints of interior faces. We prove that the discrete Korn inequality and a discrete inf–sup condition hold uniformly in the mesh size and also for a nonempty Neumann boundary. Based on these two results, we show the well-posedness of the discrete problem. Two counterexamples prove that there is no direct generalization of the Kouhia–Stenberg FEM to three space dimensions: the finite element space with one nonconforming and two conforming piecewise affine components does not satisfy a discrete inf–sup condition with piecewise constant pressure approximations, while finite element functions with two nonconforming and one conforming component do not satisfy a discrete Korn inequality.