Sanna Mönkölä

Controllability method for the Helmholtz equation with higher-order discretizations

We consider a controllability technique for the numerical solution of the Helmholtz equation. The original time-harmonic equation is represented as an exact controllability problem for the time-dependent wave equation. This problem is then formulated as a least-squares optimization problem, which is solved by the conjugate gradient method. Such an approach was first suggested and developed in the 1990s by French researchers and we introduce some improvements to its practical realization. We use higher-order spectral elements for spatial discretization, which leads to high accuracy and lumped mass matrices. Higher-order approximation reduces the pollution effect associated with finite element approximation of time-harmonic wave equations, and mass lumping makes explicit time-stepping schemes for the wave equation very efficient. We also derive a new way to compute the gradient of the least-squares functional and use algebraic multigrid method for preconditioning the conjugate gradient algorithm. Numerical results demonstrate the significant improvements in efficiency due to the higher-order spectral elements. For a given accuracy, spectral element method requires fewer computational operations than conventional finite element method. In addition, by using higher-order polynomial basis the influence of the pollution effect is reduced.

Time-harmonic elasticity with controllability and higher-order discretization methods

The time-harmonic solution of the linear elastic wave equation is needed for a variety of applications. The typical procedure for solving the time-harmonic elastic wave equation leads to difficulties solving large-scale indefinite linear systems. To avoid these difficulties, we consider the original time dependent equation with a method based on an exact controllability formulation. The main idea of this approach is to find initial conditions such that after one time-period, the solution and its time derivative coincide with the initial conditions. The wave equation is discretized in the space domain with spectral elements. The degrees of freedom associated with the basis functions are situated at the Gauss-Lobatto quadrature points of the elements, and the Gauss-Lobatto quadrature rule is used so that the mass matrix becomes diagonal. This method is combined with the second-order central finite difference or the fourth-order Runge-Kutta time discretization. As a consequence of these choices, only matrix-vector products are needed in time dependent simulation. This makes the controllability method computationally efficient.

Comparison between the shifted-Laplacian preconditioning and the controllability methods for computational acoustics

Processes that can be modelled with numerical calculations of acoustic pressure fields include medical and industrial ultrasound, echo sounding, and environmental noise. We present two methods for making these calculations based on Helmholtz equation. The first method is based directly on the complex-valued Helmholtz equation and an algebraic multigrid approximation of the discretized shifted-Laplacian operator; i.e. the damped Helmholtz operator as a preconditioner. The second approach returns to a transient wave equation, and finds the time-periodic solution using a controllability technique. We concentrate on acoustic problems, but our methods can be used for other types of Helmholtz problems as well. Numerical experiments show that the control method takes more CPU time, whereas the shifted-Laplacian method has larger memory requirement.

Efficient Time Integration of Maxwell's Equations with Generalized Finite Differences

We consider the computationally efficient time integration of Maxwells equations using discrete exterior calculus (DEC) as the computational framework. With the theory of DEC, we associate the degrees of freedom of the electric and magnetic fields with primal and dual mesh structures, respectively. We concentrate on mesh constructions that imitate the geometry of the close packing in crystal lattices that is typical of elemental metals and intermetallic compounds. This class of computational grids has not been used previously in electromagnetics. For the simulation of wave propagation driven by time-harmonic source terms, we provide an optimized Hodge operator and a novel time discretization scheme with nonuniform time step size. The numerical experiments show a significant improvement in accuracy and a decrease in computing time compared to simulations with well-known variants of the finite difference time domain method.

Constraining the Pre-atmospheric Parameters of Large Meteoroids: Košice, a Case Study

Out of a total around 50,000 meteorites currently known to science, the atmospheric passage was recorded instrumentally in only 25 cases with the potential to derive their atmospheric trajectories and pre-impact heliocentric orbits. Similarly, while observations of meteors generate thousands of new entries per month to existing databases, it is extremely rare they lead to meteorite recovery (http://www.meteoriteorbits.info/). These 25 exceptional cases thus deserve a thorough re-examination by different techniques—not only to ensure that we are able to match the model with the observations, but also to enable the best possible interpretation scenario and facilitate the robust extraction of key characteristics of a meteoroid based on the available data. In this study, we evaluate the dynamic mass of the Kosice meteoroid using analysis of drag and mass-loss rate available from the observations. We estimate the dynamic pre-atmospheric meteoroid mass at 1850 kg. The pre-fragmentation size proportions of the Kosice meteoroid are estimated based on the statistical distribution of the recovered meteorite fragments. The heliocentric orbit of the Kosice meteoroid, derived using numerical integration of the equations of motion, is found to be in close agreement to earlier published results.

Time-harmonic solution for acousto-elastic interaction with controllability and spectral elements

The classical way of solving the time-harmonic linear acousto-elastic wave problem is to discretize the equations with finite elements or finite differences. This approach leads to large-scale indefinite complex-valued linear systems. For these kinds of systems, it is difficult to construct efficient iterative solution methods. That is why we use an alternative approach and solve the time-harmonic problem by controlling the solution of the corresponding time dependent wave equation. In this paper, we use an unsymmetric formulation, where fluid-structure interaction is modeled as a coupling between pressure and displacement. The coupled problem is discretized in space domain with spectral elements and in time domain with central finite differences. After discretization, exact controllability problem is reformulated as a least-squares problem, which is solved by the conjugate gradient method.

An optimization-based approach for solving a time-harmonic multiphysical wave problem with higher-order schemes

This study considers developing numerical solution techniques for the computer simulations of time-harmonic fluid-structure interaction between acoustic and elastic waves. The focus is on the efficiency of an iterative solution method based on a controllability approach and spectral elements. We concentrate on the model, in which the acoustic waves in the fluid domain are modeled by using the velocity potential and the elastic waves in the structure domain are modeled by using displacement. Traditionally, the complex-valued time-harmonic equations are used for solving the time-harmonic problems. Instead of that, we focus on finding periodic solutions without solving the time-harmonic problems directly. The time-dependent equations can be simulated with respect to time until a time-harmonic solution is reached, but the approach suffers from poor convergence. To overcome this challenge, we follow the approach first suggested and developed for the acoustic wave equations by Bristeau, Glowinski, and Periaux. Thus, we accelerate the convergence rate by employing a controllability method. The problem is formulated as a least-squares optimization problem, which is solved with the conjugate gradient (CG) algorithm. Computation of the gradient of the functional is done directly for the discretized problem. A graph-based multigrid method is used for preconditioning the CG algorithm.

High-quality discretizations for microwave simulations

We apply high-quality discretizations to simulate electromagnetic microwaves. Instead of the vector field presentations, we focus on differential forms and discretize the model in the spatial domain using the discrete exterior calculus. At the discrete level, both the Hodge operators and the time discretization are optimized for time-harmonic simulations. Non-uniform spatial and temporal discretization are applied in problems in which the wavelength is highly-variable and geometry contains sub-wavelength structures.

Controllability Method for the Solution of Linear Elastic Wave Equation

We consider the use of controllability techniques for the numerical solution of time-harmonic elastic wave equations. Instead of solving directly the time-harmonic equation, we return to the corresponding time-dependent equation and look for time-periodic solution. The basic approach is to time-integrate the wave equation from initial conditions until the time-periodic solution is reached. Unfortunately, the convergence of such an approach is usually slow. We accelerate the convergence with a control technique by representing the original time-harmonic equation as an exact controllability problem for the time-dependent wave equation. This involves finding such initial conditions that after one timeperiod the solution and its time derivative would coincide with the initial conditions.