Some features of the nodal recovery of gradients from finite element approximations which produces superconvergence
We present a new class of self-adaptive higher-order finite element methods (-FEM) which are free of analytical error estimates and thus work equally well for virtually all PDE problems ranging from simple linear elliptic equations to complex time-dependent nonlinear multiphysics coupled problems. The methods do not contain any tuning parameters and work reliably with both low- and high-order finite elements. The methodology was used to solve various types of problems including thermoelasticity,...
The existence of spherically symmetric solutions is proved for a new phase-field model that describes the motion of an interface in an elastically deformable solid, here the motion is driven by configurational forces. The model is an elliptic-parabolic coupled system which consists of a linear elasticity system and a non-linear evolution equation of the order parameter. The non-linear equation is non-uniformly parabolic and is of fourth order. One typical application is sintering.