𝐿²-estimates for the evolving surface finite element method

Abstract

In this paper we consider the evolving surface finite element meth- od for the advection and diffusion of a conserved scalar quantity on a moving surface. In an earlier paper using a suitable variational formulation in time dependent Sobolev space we proposed and analysed a finite element method using surface finite elements on evolving triangulated surfaces. An optimal order <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper H Superscript 1"> <mml:semantics> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>H</mml:mi> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">H^1</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> -error bound was proved for linear finite elements. In this work we prove the optimal error bound in <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper L squared left-parenthesis normal upper Gamma left-parenthesis t right-parenthesis right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal"> Γ </mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>t</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">L^2(\Gamma (t))</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> uniformly in time.