The hp nonconforming mesh refinement in discontinuous Galerkin finite element method based on Zienkiewicz-Zhu error estimation

Abstract

This paper deals with hp-type adaptation in the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method. The DG method is formulated in this paper with a non-zero mesh skeleton width, which leads to a version of the method called in this paper the interface discontinuous Galerkin (IDG) method. In this formulation, the mesh skeleton has a finite volume and special finite elements are used for discretization. The skeleton spatial calculations are performed using the finite difference or mid-values formulas which are based on the shape functions of the neighbouring finite elements. The Dirichlet boundary conditions are applied using a non-zero width of the material between the outer boundary and a finite element aligned with the boundary. Next, the paper discusses the mesh refinement of hp type. In the IDG method, the mesh does not have to be conforming. The Zienkiewicz-Zhu (ZZ) error indicator is adapted in the IDG method for the purpose of mesh refinement. The paper is illustrated with two-dimensional examples, in which the mesh refinement for an elliptic problem is performed.