Adaptation of the composite finite element framework for semilinear parabolic problems

Abstract

In this article, we discuss one type of finite element method (FEM), known as the composite finite element method (CFE). Dimensionality reduction is the primary benefit of CFE as it helps to reduce the complexity of the domain space. The number of degrees of freedom is greater in standard FEM compared to CFE. We consider the semilinear parabolic problem in a 2D convex polygonal domain. The analysis of the semidiscrete method for the problem is carried out initially in the CFE framework. Here, the discretization is carried out only in space. Then, the fully discrete problem is taken into account, where both the spatial and time components get discretized. In the fully discrete case, the backward Euler method and the Crank-Nicolson method in the CFE framework are adapted for the semilinear problem. The properties of convergence are derived and the error estimates are examined. It is verified that the order of convergence is preserved. The results obtained from the numerical computations are also provided.