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We present both $hp$-a priori and $hp$-a posteriori error analysis of a mixed-order hybrid high-order (HHO) method to approximate second-order elliptic problems on simplicial meshes. Our main result on the $hp$-a priori error analysis is a $\frac12$-order $p$-suboptimal error estimate. This result is, to our knowledge, the first of this kind for hybrid nonconforming methods and matches the state-of-the-art for other nonconforming methods as discontinuous Galerkin methods. Our second main result is a residual-based $hp$-a posteriori upper error bound, comprising residual, normal flux jump, tangential jump, and stabilization estimators (plus data oscillation terms). The first three terms are $p$-optimal and only the latter is $\frac12$-order $p$-suboptimal. This result is, to our knowledge, the first $hp$-a posteriori error estimate for HHO methods. A novel approach based on the partition-of-unity provided by hat basis functions and on local Helmholtz decompositions on vertex stars is devised to estimate the nonconformity error. Finally, we establish local lower error bounds. Remarkably, the normal flux jump estimator is only $\frac12$-order $p$-suboptimal, as it can be bounded by the stabilization owing to the local conservation property of HHO methods. Numerical examples illustrate the theory.

The aim of this article is to introduce a new methodology for constructing morphings between shapes that have identical topology. The morphings are obtained by deforming a reference shape, through the resolution of a sequence of linear elasticity equations, onto every target shape. In particular, our approach does not assume any knowledge of a boundary parametrization. Furthermore, we demonstrate how constraints can be imposed on specific points, lines and surfaces in the reference domain to ensure alignment with their counterparts in the target domain after morphing. Additionally, we show how the proposed methodology can be integrated in an offline and online paradigm, which is useful in reduced-order modeling involving variable shapes. This framework facilitates the efficient computation of the morphings in various geometric configurations, thus improving the versatility and applicability of the approach. The methodology is illustrated on the regression problem of the drag and lift coefficients of airfoils of non-parameterized variable shapes.

We develop an efficient reduced basis method for the frictional contact problem formulated using Nitsche's method. We focus on the regime of small deformations and on Tresca friction. The key idea ensuring the computational efficiency of the method is to treat the nonlinearity resulting from the contact and friction conditions by means of the Empirical Interpolation Method. The proposed algorithm is applied to the Hertz contact problem between two half-disks with parameter-dependent radius. We also highlight the benefits of the present approach with respect to the mixed (primal-dual) formulation.

We devise and analyze $C^0$-conforming hybrid high-order (HHO) methods to approximate biharmonic problems with either clamped or simply supported boundary conditions. $C^0$-conforming HHO methods hinge on cell unknowns which are $C^0$-conforming polynomials of order $(k+2)$ approximating the solution in the mesh cells and on face unknowns which are polynomials of order $k\ge0$ approximating the normal derivative of the solution on the mesh skeleton. Such methods deliver $O(h^{k+1})$ $H^2$-error estimates for smooth solutions. An important novelty in the error analysis is to lower the minimal regularity requirement on the exact solution. The technique to achieve this has broader applicability than just $C^0$-conforming HHO methods, and to illustrate this point, we outline the error analysis for the well-known $C^0$-conforming interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin (IPDG) methods as well. The present technique does not require bubble functions or a $C^1$-smoother to evaluate the right-hand side in case of rough loads. Finally, numerical results including comparisons to various existing methods showcase the efficiency of the proposed $C^0$-conforming HHO methods.

We estimate best-approximation errors using vector-valued finite elements for fields with low regularity in the scale of fractional-order Sobolev spaces. By assuming additionally that the target field has a curl or divergence property, we establish upper bounds on these errors that can be localized to the mesh cells. These bounds are derived using the quasi-interpolation errors with or without boundary prescription derived in [A. Ern and J.-L. Guermond, ESAIM Math. Model. Numer. Anal., 51 (2017), pp.~1367--1385]. By using the face-to-cell lifting operators analyzed in [A. Ern and J.-L. Guermond, Found. Comput. Math., (2021)], and exploiting the additional assumption made on the curl or the divergence of the target field, a localized upper bound on the quasi-interpolation error is derived. As an illustration, we show how to apply these results to the error analysis of the curl-curl problem associated with Maxwell's equations., Comment: 12

We propose a novel hybrid high-order method (HHO) to approximate singularly perturbed fourth-order PDEs on domains with a possibly curved boundary. The two key ideas in devising the method are the use of a Nitsche-type boundary penalty technique to weakly enforce the boundary conditions and a scaling of the weighting parameter in the stabilization operator that compares the singular perturbation parameter to the square of the local mesh size. With these ideas in hand, we derive stability and optimal error estimates over the whole range of values for the singular perturbation parameter, including the zero value for which a second-order elliptic problem is recovered. Numerical experiments illustrate the theoretical analysis.

This book is organized into eight chapters. The first three gently introduce the basic principles of hybrid high-order methods on a linear diffusion problem, the key ideas underlying the mathematical analysis, and some useful variants of the method as well as links to other methods from the literature. The following four present various challenging applications to solid mechanics, including linear elasticity and hyperelasticity, elastodynamics, contact/friction, and plasticity. The last chapter reviews implementation aspects. This book is primarily intended for graduate students, researchers (in applied mathematics, numerical analysis, and computational mechanics), and engineers working in related fields of application. Basic knowledge of the devising and analysis of finite element methods is assumed. Special effort was made to streamline the presentation so as to pinpoint the essential ideas, address key mathematical aspects, present examples, and provide bibliographic pointers., Comment: This is a preprint of the following work: M. Cicuttin, A. Ern, N. Pignet, Hybrid high-order methods. A primer with applications to solid mechanics, Springer, (in press) 2021, reproduced with the permission of the publisher

We investigate artificial compressibility (AC) techniques for the time discretization of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The space discretization is based on a lowest-order face-based scheme supporting polytopal meshes, namely discrete velocities are attached to the mesh faces and cells, whereas discrete pressures are attached to the mesh cells. This face-based scheme can be embedded into the framework of hybrid mixed mimetic schemes and gradient schemes, and has close links to the lowest-order version of hybrid high-order methods devised for the steady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The AC timestepping uncouples at each time step the velocity update from the pressure update. The performances of this approach are compared against those of the more traditional monolithic approach which maintains the velocity-pressure coupling at each time step. We consider both first-order and second-order time schemes and either an implicit or an explicit treatment of the nonlinear convection term. We investigate numerically the CFL stability restriction resulting from an explicit treatment, both on Cartesian and polytopal meshes. Finally, numerical tests on large 3D polytopal meshes highlight the efficiency of the AC approach and the benefits of using second-order schemes whenever accurate discrete solutions are to be attained.

We devise and analyze two hybrid high-order (HHO) methods for the numerical approximation of the biharmonic problem. The methods support polyhedral meshes, rely on the primal formulation of the problem, and deliver $O(h^{k+1})$ $H^2$-error estimates when using polynomials of order $k\ge0$ to approximate the normal derivative on the mesh (inter)faces. Both HHO methods hinge on a stabilization in the spirit of Lehrenfeld--Sch\"oberl for second-order PDEs. The cell unknowns are polynomials of order $(k+2)$ that can be eliminated locally by means of static condensation. The face unknowns approximating the trace of the solution on the mesh (inter)faces are polynomials of order $(k+1)$ in the first HHO method which is valid in dimension two and uses an original stabilization involving the canonical hybrid finite element, and they are of order $(k+2)$ for the second HHO method which is valid in arbitrary dimension and uses only $L^2$-orthogonal projections in the stabilization. A comparative discussion with the weak Galerkin methods from the literature is provided, highlighting the close connections and the improvements proposed herein. Additionally, we show how the two HHO methods can be combined with a Nitsche-like boundary-penalty technique to weakly enforce the boundary conditions. An originality in the devised Nitsche's technique is to avoid any penalty parameter that must be large enough. Finally, numerical results showcase the efficiency of the proposed methods and indicate that the HHO methods can generally outperform discontinuous Galerkin methods and even be competitive with $C^0$-interior penalty methods on triangular meshes.

A variational discrete element method is applied to simulate quasi-static crack propagation. Cracks are considered to propagate between the mesh cells through the mesh facets. The elastic behaviour is parametrized by the continuous mechanical parameters (Young modulus and Poisson ratio). A discrete energetic cracking criterion coupled to a discrete kinking criterion guide the cracking process. Two-dimensional numerical examples are presented to illustrate the robustness and versatility of the method., Comment: 19 pages, 20 figures

We propose, analyze mathematically, and study numerically a novel approach for the finite element approximation of the spectrum of second-order elliptic operators. The main idea is to reduce the stiffness of the problem by subtracting a least-squares penalty on the gradient jumps across the mesh interfaces from the standard stiffness bilinear form. This penalty bilinear form is similar to the known technique used to stabilize finite element approximations in various contexts. The penalty term is designed to dampen the high frequencies in the spectrum and so it is weighted here by a negative coefficient. The resulting approximation technique is called softFEM since it reduces the stiffness of the problem. The two key advantages of softFEM over the standard Galerkin FEM are to improve the approximation of the eigenvalues in the upper part of the discrete spectrum and to reduce the condition number of the stiffness matrix. We derive a sharp upper bound on the softness parameter weighting the stabilization bilinear form so as to maintain coercivity for the softFEM bilinear form. Then we prove that softFEM delivers the same optimal convergence rates as the standard Galerkin FEM approximation for the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors. We next compare the discrete eigenvalues obtained when using Galerkin FEM and softFEM. Finally, a detailed analysis of linear softFEM for the 1D Laplace eigenvalue problem delivers a sensible choice for the softness parameter. With this choice, the stiffness reduction ratio scales linearly with the polynomial degree. Various numerical experiments illustrate the benefits of using softFEM over Galerkin FEM., Comment: 32 pages

We propose a new explicit pseudo-energy and momentum conserving scheme for the time integration of Hamiltonian systems. The scheme, which is formally second-order accurate, is based on two key ideas: the integration during the time-steps of forces between free-flight particles and the use of momentum jumps at the discrete time nodes leading to a two-step formulation for the acceleration. The pseudo-energy conservation is established under exact force integration, whereas it is valid to second-order accuracy in the presence of quadrature errors. Moreover, we devise an asynchronous version of the scheme that can be used in the framework of slow-fast time-stepping strategies. The scheme is validated against classical benchmarks and on nonlinear or inhomogeneous wave propagation problems.

We study extensions of piecewise polynomial data prescribed in a patch of tetrahedra sharing an edge. We show stability in the sense that the minimizers over piecewise polynomial spaces with prescribed tangential component jumps across faces and prescribed piecewise curl in elements are subordinate in the broken energy norm to the minimizers over the broken H(curl) space with the same prescriptions. Our proofs are constructive and yield constants independent of the polynomial degree. We then detail the application of this result to the a posteriori error analysis of the curl-curl problem discretized with N\'ed\'elec finite elements of arbitrary order. The resulting estimators are reliable, locally efficient, polynomial-degree-robust, and inexpensive. They are constructed by a broken patchwise equilibration which, in particular, does not produce a globally H(curl)-conforming flux. The equilibration is only related to edge patches and can be realized without solutions of patch problems by a sweep through tetrahedra around every mesh edge. The error estimates become guaranteed when the regularity pick-up constant is explicitly known. Numerical experiments illustrate the theoretical findings.

We prove that the minimizer in the N\'ed\'elec polynomial space of some degree p > 0 of a discrete minimization problem performs as well as the continuous minimizer in H(curl), up to a constant that is independent of the polynomial degree p. The minimization problems are posed for fields defined on a single non-degenerate tetrahedron in R^3 with polynomial constraints enforced on the curl of the field and its tangential trace on some faces of the tetrahedron. This result builds upon [L. Demkowicz, J. Gopalakrishnan, J. Sch\"oberl SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 47 (2009), 3293--3324] and [M. Costabel, A. McIntosh, Math. Z. 265 (2010), 297--320] and is a fundamental ingredient to build polynomial-degree-robust a posteriori error estimators when approximating the Maxwell equations in several regimes leading to a curl-curl problem.

We propose a new discrete element method supporting general polyhedral meshes. The method can be understood as a lowest-order discontinuous Galerkin method parametrized by the continuous mechanical parameters (Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio). We consider quasi-static and dynamic elasto-plasticity, and in the latter situation, a pseudo-energy conserving time-integration method is employed. The computational cost of the time-stepping method is moderate since it is explicit and used with a naturally diagonal mass matrix. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the robustness and versatility of the method for quasi-static and dynamic elasto-plastic evolutions., Comment: Published version

Given an arbitrary function in H(div), we show that the error attained by the global-best approximation by H(div)-conforming piecewise polynomial Raviart-Thomas-N\'ed\'elec elements under additional constraints on the divergence and normal flux on the boundary, is, up to a generic constant, equivalent to the sum of independent local-best approximation errors over individual mesh elements, without constraints on the divergence or normal fluxes. The generic constant only depends on the shape-regularity of the underlying simplicial mesh, the space dimension, and the polynomial degree of the approximations. The analysis also gives rise to a stable, local, commuting projector in H(div), delivering an approximation error that is equivalent to the local-best approximation. We next present a variant of the equivalence result, where robustness of the constant with respect to the polynomial degree is attained for unbalanced approximations. These two results together further enable us to derive rates of convergence of global-best approximations that are fully optimal in both the mesh size h and the polynomial degree p, for vector fields that only feature elementwise the minimal necessary Sobolev regularity. We finally show how to apply our findings to derive optimal a priori hp-error estimates for mixed and least-squares finite element methods applied to a model diffusion problem.

We design and analyze a new adaptive stabilized finite element method. We construct a discrete approximation of the solution in a continuous trial space by minimizing the residual measured in a dual norm of a discontinuous test space that has inf-sup stability. We formulate this residual minimization as a stable saddle-point problem which delivers a stabilized discrete solution and a residual representation that drives the adaptive mesh refinement. Numerical results on an advection-reaction model problem show competitive error reduction rates when compared to discontinuous Galerkin methods on uniformly refined meshes and smooth solutions. Moreover, the technique leads to optimal decay rates for adaptive mesh refinement and solutions having sharp layers.

Hybrid High-Order methods for elliptic diffusion problems have been originally formulated for loads in the Lebesgue space $L^2(\Omega)$. In this paper we devise and analyze a variant thereof, which is defined for any load in the dual Sobolev space $H^{-1}(\Omega)$. The main feature of the present variant is that its $H^1$-norm error can be bounded only in terms of the $H^1$-norm best error in a space of broken polynomials. We establish this estimate with the help of recent results on the quasi-optimality of nonconforming methods. We prove also an improved error bound in the $L^2$-norm by duality. Compared to previous works on quasi-optimal nonconforming methods, the main novelties are that Hybrid High-Order methods handle pairs of unknowns, and not a single function, and, more crucially, that these methods employ a reconstruction that is one polynomial degree higher than the discrete unknowns. The proposed modification affects only the formulation of the discrete right-hand side. This is obtained by properly mapping discrete test functions into $H^1_0(\Omega)$.

We propose a reconstruction-based a posteriori error estimate for linear advection problems in one space dimension. In our framework, a stable variational ultra-weak formulation is adopted, and the equivalence of the $L_2$-norm of the error with the dual graph norm of the residual is established. This dual norm is showed to be localizable over vertex-based patch subdomains of the computational domain under the condition of the orthogonality of the residual to the piecewise affine hat functions. We show that this condition is valid for some well-known numerical methods including continuous/discontinuous Petrov--Galerkin and discontinuous Galerkin methods. Consequently, a well-posed local problem on each patch is identified, which leads to a global conforming reconstruction of the discrete solution. We prove that this reconstruction provides a guaranteed upper bound on the $L_2$ error. Moreover, up to a constant, it also gives local lower bounds on the $L_2$ error, where the generic constant is proven to be independent of mesh-refinement, polynomial degree of the approximation, and the advective velocity. This leads to robustness of our estimates with respect to the advection as well as the polynomial degree. All the above properties are verified in a series of numerical experiments, additionally leading to asymptotic exactness. Motivated by these results, we finally propose a heuristic extension of our methodology to any space dimension, achieved by solving local least-squares problems on vertex-based patches. Though not anymore guaranteed, the resulting error indicator is numerically robust with respect to both advection velocity and polynomial degree, for a collection of two-dimensional test cases including discontinuous solutions.

In this paper we investigate the approximation of a diffusion model problem with contrasted diffusivity and the error analysis of various nonconforming approximation methods. The essential difficulty is that the Sobolev smoothness index of the exact solution may be just barely larger than one. The lack of smoothness is handled by giving a weak meaning to the normal derivative of the exact solution at the mesh faces. The error estimates are robust with respect to the diffusivity contrast. We briefly show how the analysis can be extended to the Maxwell's equations.

We devise and evaluate numerically a Hybrid High-Order (HHO) method for finite plasticity within a logarithmic strain framework. The HHO method uses as discrete unknowns piecewise polynomials of order $k\ge1$ on the mesh skeleton, together with cell-based polynomials that can be eliminated locally by static condensation. The HHO method leads to a primal formulation, supports polyhedral meshes with non-matching interfaces, is free of volumetric locking, the integration of the behavior law is performed only at cell-based quadrature nodes, and the tangent matrix in Newton's method is symmetric. Moreover, the principle of virtual work is satisfied locally with equilibrated tractions. Various two- and three-dimensional benchmarks are presented, as well as comparison against known solutions with an industrial software using conforming and mixed finite elements., Comment: 32 pages; 16 figures; 1 table. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1804.06129