Anders Logg

Automated Solution of Differential Equations by the Finite Element Method: The FEniCS Book

This book is a tutorial written by researchers and developers behind the FEniCS Project and explores an advanced, expressive approach to the development of mathematical software. The presentation spans mathematical background, software design and the use of FEniCS in applications. Theoretical aspects are complemented with computer code which is available as free/open source software. The book begins with a special introductory tutorial for beginners. Followingare chapters in Part I addressing fundamental aspects of the approach to automating the creation of finite element solvers. Chapters in Part II address the design and implementation of the FEnicS software. Chapters in Part III present the application of FEniCS to a wide range of applications, including fluid flow, solid mechanics, electromagnetics and geophysics.

DOLFIN: Automated finite element computing

We describe here a library aimed at automating the solution of partial differential equations using the finite element method. By employing novel techniques for automated code generation, the library combines a high level of expressiveness with efficient computation. Finite element variational forms may be expressed in near mathematical notation, from which low-level code is automatically generated, compiled, and seamlessly integrated with efficient implementations of computational meshes and high-performance linear algebra. Easy-to-use object-oriented interfaces to the library are provided in the form of a C++ library and a Python module. This article discusses the mathematical abstractions and methods used in the design of the library and its implementation. A number of examples are presented to demonstrate the use of the library in application code.

A compiler for variational forms

As a key step towards a complete automation of the finite element method, we present a new algorithm for automatic and efficient evaluation of multilinear variational forms. The algorithm has been implemented in the form of a compiler, the FEniCS Form Compiler (FFC). We present benchmark results for a series of standard variational forms, including the incompressible Navier--Stokes equations and linear elasticity. The speedup compared to the standard quadrature-based approach is impressive; in some cases the speedup is as large as a factor of 1000.

Automating the Finite Element Method

Abstract The finite element method can be viewed as a machine that automates the discretization of differential equations, taking as input a variational problem, a finite element and a mesh, and producing as output a system of discrete equations. However, the generality of the framework provided by the finite element method is seldom reflected in implementations (realizations), which are often specialized and can handle only a small set of variational problems and finite elements (but are typically parametrized over the choice of mesh). This paper reviews ongoing research in the direction of a complete automation of the finite element method. In particular, this work discusses algorithms for the efficient and automatic computation of a system of discrete equations from a given variational problem, finite element and mesh. It is demonstrated that by automatically generating and compiling efficient low-level code, it is possible to parametrize a finite element code over variational problem and finite element in addition to the mesh.

Unified form language: A domain-specific language for weak formulations of partial differential equations

We present the Unified Form Language (UFL), which is a domain-specific language for representing weak formulations of partial differential equations with a view to numerical approximation. Features of UFL include support for variational forms and functionals, automatic differentiation of forms and expressions, arbitrary function space hierarchies for multifield problems, general differential operators and flexible tensor algebra. With these features, UFL has been used to effortlessly express finite element methods for complex systems of partial differential equations in near-mathematical notation, resulting in compact, intuitive and readable programs. We present in this work the language and its construction. An implementation of UFL is freely available as an open-source software library. The library generates abstract syntax tree representations of variational problems, which are used by other software libraries to generate concrete low-level implementations. Some application examples are presented and libraries that support UFL are highlighted.

A Stabilized Nitsche Fictitious Domain Method for the Stokes Problem

We present a novel finite element method for the Stokes problem on fictitious domains. We prove inf-sup stability, optimal order convergence and uniform boundedness of the condition number of the discrete system. The finite element formulation is based on a stabilized Nitsche method with ghost penalties for the velocity and pressure to obtain stability in the presence of small cut elements. We demonstrate for the first time the applicability of the Nitsche fictitious domain method to three-dimensional Stokes problems. We further discuss a general, flexible and freely available implementation of the method and present numerical examples supporting the theoretical results.

DOLFIN: a C++/Python finite element library

DOLFIN is a C++/Python library that functions as the main user interface of FEniCS. In this 4806 chapter, we review the functionality of DOLFIN. We also discuss the implementation of some key 4807 features of DOLFIN in detail.

Optimizing the Evaluation of Finite Element Matrices

Assembling stiffness matrices represents a significant cost in many finite element computations. We address the question of optimizing the evaluation of these matrices. By finding redundant computations, we are able to significantly reduce the cost of building local stiffness matrices for the Laplace operator and for the trilinear form for Navier--Stokes operators. For the Laplace operator in two space dimensions, we have developed a heuristic graph algorithm that searches for such redundancies and generates code for computing the local stiffness matrices. Up to cubics, we are able to build the stiffness matrix on any triangle in less than one multiply-add pair per entry. Up to sixth degree, we can do it in less than about two pairs. Preliminary low-degree results for Poisson and Navier-Stokes operators in three dimensions are also promising.

Explicit Time-Stepping for Stiff ODEs

We present a new strategy for solving stiff ODEs with explicit methods. By adaptively taking a small number of stabilizing small explicit time steps when necessary, a stiff ODE system can be stabilized enough to allow for time steps much larger than what is indicated by classical stability analysis. For many stiff problems the cost of the stabilizing small time steps is small, so the improvement is large. We illustrate the technique on a number of well-known stiff test problems.

Multi-Adaptive Galerkin Methods for ODEs I

We present multi-adaptive versions of the standard continuous and discontinuous Galerkin methods for ODEs. Taking adaptivity one step further, we allow for individual time-steps, order and quadrature, so that in particular each individual component has its own time-step sequence. This paper contains a description of the methods, an analysis of their basic properties, and a posteriori error analysis. In the accompanying paper [A. Logg, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., submitted], we present adaptive algorithms for time-stepping and global error control based on the results of the current paper.