No abstract

The implementation of finite element methods (FEMs) for nonlocal models with a finite range of interaction poses challenges not faced in the partial differential equations (PDEs) setting. For example, one has to deal with weak forms involving double integrals which lead to discrete systems having higher assembly and solving costs due to possibly much lower sparsity compared to that of FEMs for PDEs. In addition, one may encounter non-smooth integrands. In many nonlocal models, nonlocal interactions are limited to bounded neighborhoods that are ubiquitously chosen to be Euclidean balls, resulting in the challenge of dealing with intersections of such balls with the finite elements. We focus on developing recipes for the efficient assembly of FEM stiffness matrices and on the choice of quadrature rules for the double integrals that contribute to the assembly efficiency and also posses sufficient accuracy. A major feature of our recipes is the use of approximate balls, e.g., several polygonal approximations of Euclidean balls, that, among other advantages, mitigate the challenge of dealing with ball-element intersections. We provide numerical illustrations of the relative accuracy and efficiency of the several approaches we develop.

A rigorous mathematical framework is provided for a substructuring-based domaindecomposition approach for nonlocal problems that feature interactions between points separated by a finite distance. Here, by substructuring it is meant that a traditional geometric configuration for local partial differential equation problems is used in which a computational domain is subdivided into non-overlapping subdomains. In the nonlocal setting, this approach is substructuring-based in the sense that those subdomains interact with neighboring domains over interface regions having finite volume, in contrast to the local PDE setting in which interfaces are lower dimensional manifolds separating abutting subdomains. Key results include the equivalence between the global, singledomain nonlocal problem and its multi-domain reformulation, both at the continuous and discrete levels. These results provide the rigorous foundation necessary for the development of efficient solution strategies for nonlocal domain-decomposition methods.

The implementation of finite element methods (FEMs) for nonlocal models with a finite range of interaction poses challenges not faced in the partial differential equations (PDEs) setting. For example, one has to deal with weak forms involving double integrals which lead to discrete systems having higher assembly and solving costs due to possibly much lower sparsity compared to that of FEMs for PDEs. In addition, one may encounter nonsmooth integrands. In many nonlocal models, nonlocal interactions are limited to bounded neighborhoods that are ubiquitously chosen to be Euclidean balls, resulting in the challenge of dealing with intersections of such balls with the finite elements. We focus on developing recipes for the efficient assembly of FEM stiffness matrices and on the choice of quadrature rules for the double integrals that contribute to the assembly efficiency and also posses sufficient accuracy. A major feature of our recipes is the use of approximate balls, e.g. several polygonal approximations of Euclidean balls, that, among other advantages, mitigate the challenge of dealing with ball-element intersections. We provide numerical illustrations of the relative accuracy and efficiency of the several approaches we develop.

A mathematical framework is provided for a substructuring‐based domain decomposition (DD) approach for nonlocal problems that features interactions between points separated by a finite distance. Here, by substructuring it is meant that a traditional geometric configuration for local partial differential equation (PDE) problems is used in which a computational domain is subdivided into non‐overlapping subdomains. In the nonlocal setting, this approach is substructuring‐based in the sense that those subdomains interact with neighboring domains over interface regions having finite volume, in contrast to the local PDE setting in which interfaces are lower dimensional manifolds separating abutting subdomains. Key results include the equivalence between the global, single‐domain nonlocal problem and its multi‐domain reformulation, both at the continuous and discrete levels. These results provide the rigorous foundation necessary for the development of efficient solution strategies for nonlocal DD methods.