An efficient dynamically adaptive mesh for potentially singular solutions

Abstract We develop an efficient dynamically adaptive mesh generator for time-dependent problems in two or more dimensions. The mesh generator is motivated by the variational approach and is based on solving a new set of nonlinear elliptic PDEs for the mesh map. When coupled to a physical problem, the mesh map evolves with the underlying solution and maintains high adaptivity as the solution develops complicated structures and even singular behavior. The overall mesh strategy is simple to implement, avoids interpolation, and can be easily incorporated into a broad range of applications. The efficacy of the mesh is first demonstrated by two examples of blowing-up solutions to the 2-D semilinear heat equation. These examples show that the mesh can follow with high adaptivity a finite-time singularity process. The focus of applications presented here is however the baroclinic generation of vorticity in a strongly layered 2-D Boussinesq fluid, a challenging problem. The moving mesh follows effectively the flow resolving both its global features and the almost singular shear layers developed dynamically. The numerical results show the fast collapse to small scales and an exponential vorticity growth.

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