March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006

Journal of Computational Acoustics, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2000) 171188

c IMACS
MIXED FINITE ELEMENTS WITH MASS-LUMPING FOR THE
TRANSIENT WAVE EQUATION
GARY COHEN and SANDRINE FAUQUEUX
INRIA, Domaine de Voluceau, Rocquencourt, B.P. 105,
78153 Le Chesnay Cedex, France
E-mail : gary.cohen@inria.fr; sandrine.fauqueux@inria.fr
Received 15 June 1999
Revised 30 September 1999
Solving the acoustics equation by nite elements with mass-lumping requires the use of spectral
elements. Although avoiding the inversion of a mass-matrix at each time-step, these elements
remain expensive from the point of view of the stiness-matrix. In this paper, we give a mixed
nite element method which provides a factorization of the stiness-matrix which leads to a gain
of storage and computation time which grows with the order of the method and the dimension
in space. After proving the equivalence between classical spectral elements and this method, we
give a dispersion analysis on nonregular periodic meshes. Then, we analyze the accuracy and the
stability of Q
3
and Q
5
approximations on numerical tests in 2D.
1. Introduction
For a long time, the use of nite elements, in particular in their higher-order form, for
solving the transient wave equation, raised the important problem of the inversion of the
mass-matrix, which appears after discretization. This diculty has been overcome by the
use of LegendreGaussLobatto quadrature points as points of interpolation. This choice,
currently called spectral element,
1
ensures mass-lumping without aecting (and even by
increasing) the accuracy of the method.
26
However, the FEM approach remains expensive
in terms of storage since the stiness-matrix depends on space and needs to be stored for each
degree of freedom of the mesh. This storage is an important barrier to the applications.
7,8
In this paper, we present a new mixed FEM approach with mass-lumping, in the spirit of
that used in Ref. 9, which realizes over the classical spectral elements an important gain
of storage and, in the same time, a signicant gain in the time of computation. Both gains
of storage and time increase with the dimension of the problem and the order of the method.
The extension of this approach to the system of elastic waves can easily be realized and is
being studied.
171
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
172 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
2. Position of the Problem
We want to solve the heterogeneous transient wave equation in dimension N = 2, 3:
_

_
Find u: [0, T] R so that:

2
u
t
2
(x, t) (u(x, t)) = f(x, t) in [0, T]
u(x, 0) = 0 in
u
t
(x, 0) = 0 in
u(x, t) = 0 on
(2.1)
where R
N
, x = (x
1
, . . . , x
N
) , by using a classical C
0
FEM.
Let us set: =
N
e
j=1
K
j
, K
j
: quadrilateral or hexahedron of any shape,
a
U
k
h
= {w C
0
() so that w|
K
j
F
j
Q
k
(

K) and w = 0 on } (2.2)
where

K = [0, 1]
N
, F
j
= (F
j
1
, . . . , F
j
N
) is the transform so that F
j
(

K) = K
j
and Q
k
(

K) is
the space of polynomials on

K of degree less or equal to k in each variable.
Then, the approximation of (2.1), after variational formulation, can be written:
_

_
Find u
h
L

(0, T; U
k
h
) so that:
d
2
dt
2
_

u
h

h
, dx +
_

u
h

h
dx =
_

f
h
dx
h
U
k
h
u
h
(x, 0) = 0
u
h
t
(x, 0) = 0
(2.3)
The decomposition of (2.3) on the canonical basis B
U
of U
k
h
provides the discrete problem:
d
2
dt
2
D
h

U+K
h

U = F
h
(2.4)
where

U is the vector of the components of u
h
on B
U
, D
h
the mass-matrix and K
h
the
stiness-matrix.
Let N
U
= dim(U
k
h
). If
j
is a basis function of U
k
h
, S
j
its support and if we set K
h
=
(k
pq
)
(N
U
,N
U
)
(p,q)=(1,1)
, we have:
_

_
k
pq
=
_

p

q
dx
=

S
p
S
q
_
K

p

q
dx
=

S
p
S
q
_

K
|J

|DF
1

DF
1

p
F

q
F

d x
(2.5)
a
In all the following, the boundaries of K
j
can even be supposed curved.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
Mixed Finite Elements with Mass-Lumping for the Transient Wave Equation 173
where x = ( x
1
, . . . , x
N
)

K,

= (/ x
1
, . . . , / x
N
)
T
, DF

is the Jacobian matrix

corresponding to F

and J

= det(DF

).
Let = (k + 1)
N
and { x
p
}

p=1
the Lagrange points of interpolation on

K. By choosing
x
p
=
p
, where {
p
}

p=1
are the LegendreGaussLobatto quadrature points on

K and by
using this rule to compute all the integrals of (2.3), one shows
6
that D
h
becomes diagonal
without loss of accuracy for the method.
However, formula (2.5) shows that one must store all the interactions between the basis
functions on each degree of freedom of each quadrilateral or hexahedron,
b
which is a huge
storage.
For this reason, we are going to introduce a new formulation of the problem which will
lead to an important saving of storage.
3. A mixed Finite Element Approach
3.1. Formulations of the wave equation as systems
In order to formulate the mixed FEM, we rst rewrite the wave equation (2.1) as a rst
order system in the pressure u and an auxiliary variable v:
_

u
t
= v +F in [0, T]

1
v
t
= u in [0, T]
u(x, 0) = 0 in
v(x, 0) = 0 in
u(x, t) = 0 on
(3.1)
in which F is a primitive of the right-hand side used in (2.1).
One can easily see that (2.1) and (3.1) are equivalent.
3.2. Variational formulation of the system
In order to give the variational formulation of the system (3.1), we must rst dene the
functional spaces in which the unknowns will be sought. The classical mixed formulation of
this problem should be done by setting t ]0, T[, u(., t) L
2
() and v(., t) H(div, )
c
(i.e., discontinuous nite elements for U and elements with continuous uxes or normal
components for v.
10,11
However, such a choice would complicate the algorithm in our case.
b
Actually, since the matrix DF
1

DF
1

is symmetric, one must store just (k + 1)

N
((k + 1)
N
+ 1)/2
interactions per element instead of (k + 1)
2N
interactions.
c
We remind that this space is dened as:
H(div, ) = {w [L
2
()]
2
, so that div w L
2
()}
where div w is taken in the sense of distributions.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
174 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
So, we shall search u(., t) in
H
1
0
() = {w L
2
(), so that w L
2
(), u|

= 0}
which is its natural functional space and we shall take v(., t) just in [L
2
()]
N
.
In these spaces, the variational formulation of (3.1) can be written as follows:
_

_
Find u L

(0, T; H
1
0
()) and v L

(0, T; [L
2
()]
N
) so that:
d
dt
_

u dx =
_

v dx +
_

F dx H
1
0
()
d
dt
_

1
v dx =
_

u dx [L
2
()]
N
u(x, 0) = 0 in
v(x, 0) = 0 in
(3.2)
3.3. Denition of the approximation
3.3.1. Approximation on

K
Let us rst dene the polynomial approximation on

K for each variable u and v in the same
way as in Ref. 9.
We shall dene on

K two kinds of degrees of freedom:
As in the rst model given in (2.3), we dene scalar degrees of freedom for u which
correspond to the points of interpolation of Lagrange in Q
k
(

K), taken at the Legendre
GaussLobatto quadrature points.
At the same points, we dene, for v, a N-dimensional vector corresponding to the value
of a function of [Q
k
(

K)]
N
at this point.
The basis functions for u are the classical Lagrange interpolation basis functions, that is
functions (
p
)

p=1
, so that
p
(
q
) =
pq
, where
pq
is the Kronecker symbol.
For v, the basis functions will be N-dimensional vectorial functions

p
, p = 1, . . . , ,
= 1, . . . , N, so that the th component of

p
will be equal to
p
and the other ones to
zero.
3.3.2. Approximation on
On the basis of this interpolation, we can dene the spaces of approximation in which u and
v will be sought.
For u, the space of approximation will remain U
k
h
dened in (2.2).
A natural space of approximation V
k
h
for v would have been:
V
k
h
= {w [L
2
()]
N
so that w|
K
j
F
j
[Q
k
(

K)]
N
} (3.3)
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
Mixed Finite Elements with Mass-Lumping for the Transient Wave Equation 175
However, for reasons which will appear later, we shall dene this space as follows:
V
k
h
= {w [L
2
()]
N
so that J
j
DF
1
j
w|
K
j
F
j
[Q
k
(

K)]
N
} (3.4)
From a more practical point of view, the fact that w [L
2
()]
N
provides functions
discontinuous at the interfaces between two elements of the mesh. On the other hand,
J
j
DF
1
j
w|
K
j
F
j
[Q
k
(

K)]
N
means that w is obtained by using the H(div)-conform
transform (1/J
j
)DF
j
which transforms a vector normal to

K into a vector normal to K
j
.
3.3.3. The approximated problem in space
We can now dene the approximated problem in space, in the above dened spaces of
approximation:
_

_
Find u
h
L

_
0, T; U
k
h
_
and v
h
L

_
0, T; V
k
h
_
so that:
d
dt
_

u
h

h
dx =
_

v
h

h
dx +
_

F
h
dx
h
U
k
h
d
dt
_

1
v
h

h
dx =
_

u
h

h
dx
h
V
k
h
u
h
(x, 0) = 0 in
v
h
(x, 0) = 0 in
(3.5)
3.4. Features of this approximation
By taking in (3.5)
h
and
h
as basis functions of U
k
h
and V
k
h
derived from the basis
functions on

K dened in 3.3.1 and after computing all the integrals by the GaussLobatto
quadrature rule, we get the semi-discrete problem in space:
_

_
D
h
dU
dt
= R
h
V+F
h
B
h
dV
dt
= R

h
U
(3.6)
where U is the vector of the components of u
h
on the basis of U
k
h
and V, the vector of the
components of v
h
on the basis of V
k
h
. D
h
is the mass-matrix involved in (2.4).
The denition of the degrees of freedom and the use of the GaussLobatto quadrature
rule provides a N N block-diagonal mass-matrix B
h
. To each point F
j
(
p
) of an element
K
j
corresponds a N N block B
j,p
h
whose elements b
j,p
m
are:
b
j,p
m
=
p

1
F
j
(
p
)
N

q=1
F
j

x
q
(
p
)
F
j
m
x
q
(
p
) = 1, . . . , N, m = 1, . . . , N (3.7)
where (
p
)

p=1
are the weights of the GaussLobatto quadrature formula.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
176 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
Since D
h
is diagonal and B
h
block-diagonal, both D
1
h
and B
1
h
can be stored and (3.6)
can be rewritten as:
_

_
dU
dt
= D
1
h
(R
h
V+F
h
)
dV
dt
= B
1
h
(R

h
U)
(3.8)
which leads to a very fast algorithm of resolution in time.
However, the main feature of this approximation lies in the denition of V
k
h
since if

h
Q
k
(

K) and

h
[Q
k
(

K)]
N
so that
h
F
j
=
h
and
h
F
j
= (1/J
j
)DF
j

h
, we
have the following relation:
_
K
j

h

h
dx =
_

h
d x (3.9)
This relation implies that all the terms of the matrix R
h
can be computed locally on

K.
That means that the whole information on R
h
is given by the knowledge of the integrals of
the basis functions on

K:
_

q
d x p = 1, . . . , , q = 1, . . . , 2 (3.10)
This property implies that just the 2(k +1)
2N
integrals dened in (3.10) must be stored for
the matrices R
h
and R

h
, which realizes a huge gain of storage!
In fact, the whole information about geometry and physics is contained in the mass-
matrices D
h
and B
h
only.
Fig. 1. The ratios between the storages required by classical spectral FEM and mixed FEM in 2D (left) and
3D (right). The abscissae represent the order of the polynomial approximation. One can notice that the new
method is more expensive for the rst-order approximation and that the gain increases with the order and
the dimension.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
Mixed Finite Elements with Mass-Lumping for the Transient Wave Equation 177
The gain of storage taking into account both matrices and variables is represented in
Fig. 1.
Besides the gain of storage, this approach presents another feature. One can easily show
that the use of degrees of freedom for u and v at the same points and the properties of
orthogonality of these degrees of freedom on

K provide remarkable sparsity properties for
the stiness matrices R
h
and R

h
. Actually, all the interactions between degrees of freedom
on a line nonparallel to the axes are equal to zero. Moreover, the sparsity of the matrices
increase with the order of the method and the dimension in space. As we shall see later, this
property of sparsity will lead to a signicant gain of time over classical spectral elements.
All these features would provide a very interesting algorithm if the accuracy properties
of the method are comparable to those of the spectral elements. This question is the purpose
of the following paragraph.
4. A Theorem of Equivalence
The comparison of mixed FEM with spectral FEM will be xed in
Theorem 4.1. If B
h
, K
h
, R
h
and R

h
are the matrices dened in (2.4) and (3.6), we have
the factorization:
K
h
= R
h
B
1
h
R

h
(4.1)
which ensures that
U =

U (4.2)

U and U given by (2.4) and (3.6) respectively.

Proof. Let us rst give some denitions
Let = {K
j
}
j=1,..., N
e
, K
j

j = 1, . . . , N
d
, where N
d
is the number of degrees of freedom in , we set
S
j
= {i so that K
i
Supp(
j
)}
= {index of all the elements in the support of
j
}
(4.3)
and i = 1, . . . , N
e
, the functions loc
i
and glob
i
so that:
j = 1, . . . , N
d
, loc
i
(j) = p and glob
i
(p) = j with F
i
(
p
) = x
j
. (4.4)
V
k
h
will be dened in a more general frame which will provide a better understanding of
the theorem:
V
k
h
= {w (L
2
())
2
so that P
1
i
w|
K
i
F
i
[Q
k
(

K)]
N
} (4.5)
where, i, P
i
is an invertible N N-matrix.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
178 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
Let (

)
=1,..., N
d
be the basis functions of U
k
h
and (
j
)
j=1,...,
the basis functions of Q
k
(

K)
and (

j,l
)
j=1,..., ; l=1,..., N
those of [Q
k
(

K)]
N
, as dened in 3.3.1.
From these functions, we dene
i
j
and
i
j,l
so that
i
j
=
glob
i
(j)
|
K
i
,
i
j
F
i
=
j
and

i
j,l
F
i
= P
i

j,l
with:
K
i
= Supp(
i
j
) = Supp(
i
j,l
) .
With these notations, we get:
u
h
=
N
d

i=1
u
i

i
=
N
e

i=1

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)

i
j
(4.6)
v
h
=
N
e

i=1

j=1
N

l=1
v
i
j,l

i
j,l
(4.7)
Remark 4.1.
(1) These notations take into account the facts that v
h
is discontinuous and that u
h
vanishes
on the boundary of .
(2) In order to simplify the proof, we shall set

p,l
so that:

q
, q = 1, . . . , ,

j,l
(
q
) =
jq
e
l
where (e
1
, . . . , e
N
) is the canonical basis of R
N
and

jq
is the Kronecker symbol.
Decomposition of
_

v
h

i
p,m
dx:
_

v
h

i
p,m
dx =
N
e

_
K

v
h

i
p,m
dx (4.8)
By using (4.7), we get:
_

v
h

i
p,m
dx =
_
K
i

j=1
N

l=1
v
i
j,l

i
j,l

i
p,m
dx (4.9)
Let us set: x = F
i
( x).
_

v
h

i
p,m
dx =

j=1
N

l=1
v
i
j,l
_

K
|J
i
|P
i

j,l
P
i

p,m
d x (4.10)
After transposition, we get:
_

v
h

i
p,m
dx =

j=1
N

l=1
v
i
j,l
_

K
|J
i
|P

i
P
i

j,l

p,m
d x (4.11)
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
Mixed Finite Elements with Mass-Lumping for the Transient Wave Equation 179
The use of the GaussLobatto quadrature rule combined with the properties of
orthogonality of the functions

p,m
leads to:
_

v
h

i
p,m
dx

j=1
N

l=1
v
i
j,l

q=1

q
|J
i
(
q
)| P

i
(
q
)
P
i
(
q
)

j,l
(
q
)

p,m
(
q
)

j=1
N

l=1
v
i
j,l

q=1

q
|J
i
(
q
)| P

i
(
q
)
P
i
(
q
)
j,q
e
l

p,q
e
m

p
N

l=1
v
i
p,l
|J
i
(
p
)|P

i
(
p
) P
i
(
p
)e
l
e
m
(4.12)
Remark 4.2. The above formula shows that the matrix B
h
is N N-block diagonal.
Decomposition of
_

u
h

i
p,m
dx:
We use the same method as for
_

v
h

i
p,m
dx. This method provides:
_

u
h

i
p,m
dx =

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)
_

K
|J
i
| P

i
DF
1
i

p,m
d

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)

q=1

q
|J
i
(
q
)| P

i
(
q
)
DF
1
i
(
q
)

j
(
q
)

p,m
(
q
)

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)

p
|J
i
(
p
)|P

i
(
p
)
DF
1
i
(
p
)


j
(
p
) e
m
(4.13)
Finally, we get the following relation:
N

l=1
v
i
p,l
|J
i
(
p
)|P

i
(
p
)P
i
(
p
)e
l
e
m
=

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)
|J
i
(
p
)|P

i
(
p
) DF
1
i
(
p
)

j
(
p
) e
m
(4.14)
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
180 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
Decomposition of
_

v
h

n
dx:
We use the equality:

n
=

iS
n

n
|
K
i
=

iS
n

i
loc
i
(n)
The same method leads to:
_

v
h

n
dx =

iS
n

p=1
N

l=1
v
i
p,l
_
K
i

i
p,l

i
loc
i
(n)
dx
=

iS
n

p=1
N

l=1
v
i
p,l
_

K
|J
i
|DF
1
i
P
i

p,l



loc
i
(n)
d x

iS
n

p=1
N

l=1
v
i
p,l

p
|J
i
(
p
)|DF
1
i
(
p
)
P
i
(
p
)e
l



loc
i
(n)
(
p
)
(4.15)
Now, we are going to introduce P

i
(
p
)P
i
(
p
) in order to use (4.14).
We can write:
_

v
h

n
dx

iS
n

p=1

p
DF
1
i
(
p
) P
1
i
(
p
)

l=1
v
i
p,l
|J
i
(
p
)| P

i
(
p
) P
i
(
p
) e
l



loc
i
(n)
(
p
)
(4.16)
Let us set

loc
i
(n)
(
p
) =
N

m=1

loc
i
(n)
x
m
(
p
)e
m
_

v
h

n
dx

iS
n

p=1

p
DF
1
i
(
p
) P
1
i
(
p
)

m=1

loc
i
(n)
x
m
(
p
)
N

l=1
v
i
p,l
|J
i
(
p
)| P

i
(
p
)P
i
(
p
)e
l
e
m
(4.17)
Now, let us set A
p
i
= |J
i
(
p
)| P

i
(
p
) DF
1
i
(
p
). By using (4.14), we get:
_

v
h

n
dx

iS
n

p=1

p
DF
1
i
(
p
) P
1
i
(
p
)

m=1

loc
i
(n)
x
m
(
p
)

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)
A
p
i

j
(
p
) e
m
(4.18)
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
Mixed Finite Elements with Mass-Lumping for the Transient Wave Equation 181
By switching the sums in p and j and after simplication, we have:
_

v
h

n
dx

iS
n

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)

p=1

p
|J
i
(
p
)| DF
1
i
(
p
)
DF
1
i
(
p
)


loc
i
(n)
(
p
)


j
(
p
)
(4.19)
which is the approximation by the GaussLobatto quadrature rule of
_

K
|J
i
| DF
1
i
DF
1
i

loc
i
(n)



j
d x (4.20)
So, if we denote
_
GL
Q
f(x)dx the approximation by a GaussLobatto quadrature rule
of
_
Q
f(x)dx, we get
_
GL

v
h

n
dx =

iS
n

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)
_
GL

K
|J
i
| DF
1
i
DF
1
i

j



loc
i
(n)
d x
=

iS
n

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)
_
GL

K
|J
i
| DF
1
i

j
DF
1
i

loc
i
(n)
d x
=

iS
n

j=1
u
glob
i
(j)
_
GL
K
i

i
j

i
loc
i
(n)
dx
which nally provides:
_
GL

v
h

n
dx =

iS
n
_
GL
K
i
u
h
|
K
i

i
n
|
K
i
dx
=
_
GL

u
h

n
dx
(4.21)
So, by taking for
n
the elements of B
U
, we get (4.1).
Remark 4.3.
(1) For reasons of simplicity, this proof was done when = = 1 but the proof remains
the same when these parameters depend on x.
(2) The denition (4.5) of V
k
h
shows that this theorem holds for any approximation of
[L
2
()]
N
.
(3) Actually, this proof holds for any quadrature rule, as soon as the quadrature points
coincide with the degrees of freedom.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
182 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
(4) The factorization given in 4.1 can be interpereted as a discrete expression of:
_

2
u
t
2
= v +f in [0, T]

1
v = u in [0, T]
u(x, 0) = 0 in
v(x, 0) = 0 in
u(x, t) = 0 on
(4.22)
5. Dispersion Analysis of the Method
A complete dispersion analysis of the method for Q
1
, Q
2
and Q
3
approximation was made
in Ref. 6 in 2D. However, this analysis was made for regular meshes only. In this section,
we propose a dispersion analysis for more general elements in 2D, as in Ref. 9.
Of course, a dispersion analysis is based on plane wave analysis which must be performed
on a periodic mesh. For this purpose, we dene a periodic mesh composed of square cells of
size 2h divided into four quadrilaterals. If S = {S
i
}
i=1,..., 4
are the summits of the square,
M = {M
i
}
i=1,..., 4
, the centers of its edges and A an interior point, each quadrilateral will
have two summits in S, one summit in M and A as fourth summit (Fig. 2).
The dispersion analysis was done for Q
3
nite elements. We rst dene U and V as
a periodic plane wave solutions in (3.6), then we inject the second equation of (3.6) in
the rst one and we get a generalized eigenvalues problem of dimension 36. The eigen-
values correspond to the velocities of the physical wave and of 35 parasitic waves which
vanish when h 0. The coecients of the matrices of the problem, computed exactly
Fig. 2. The square cell. In the analysis and the experiments, A = (h, h) will be moved along the straight
line (D) of equation = (3 1)/2 (0.6 1.4).
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
Mixed Finite Elements with Mass-Lumping for the Transient Wave Equation 183
by Maple, are then transferred to a double precision FORTRAN program which gives a
pointwise solution of the problem. For more details on this kind of analysis, one can see in
Ref. 6.
In Fig. 3, we give the dispersion curves, that is, the ratio between the numerical velocity
c
h
of the physical wave and the exact velocity c. One can see that the loss of accuracy
remains reasonable, even for important distortions.
Fig. 3. Dispersion curves (c
h
/c) versus for some angles of propagation (0
o
, 15
o
, 30
o
, 45
o
) and three
elements per wavelength. = 1 corresponds to a regular orthogonal mesh = 0.6 or = 1.4 correspond to
degenerations into triangles.
Fig. 4. The physical domain.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
184 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
Remark 5.1. This analysis can be interpreted as a numerical Bloch waves analysis.
12
6. Numerical Study of the Method
We studied Q
3
and Q
5
approximations on a ]0, 12[ ]0, 12[ bounded domain with
homogeneous Dirichlet conditions on the boundary (Fig. 4). The right-hand side is:
Fig. 5. Periodic mesh for Q
5
with 16 16 elements and = 0.7.
Fig. 6. CFL for a leapfrog scheme versus for Q
3
and Q
5
approximations. The lower CFL curve is that
of Q
5
.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
Mixed Finite Elements with Mass-Lumping for the Transient Wave Equation 185
Table 1. Number of elements in Q
3
and Q
5
for given CPU times.
CPU N
e
in Q
3
N
e
in Q
5
23s 34 34 16 16
32s 38 38 18 18
44s 42 42 20 20
59s 46 46 22 22
f(x, t) = g(t)e
7[(x
1
6)
2
+(x
2
6)
2
]
where
g(t) = 2(2(t a)
2
1)e
(ta)
2
=
_

b
_
2
, a = 1.35, b = 1.31.
In the rst step, we studied the behavior of periodic meshes (Fig. 5) constructed by using
cells dened as in Fig. 2. We moved the point A along the straight line (D) of equation
= (3 1)/2 (0.6 1) and we drew the curves giving the stability condition (CFL)
(i.e., the ratio between the time-step t and h/k where k is the number of points per
element) versus the parameter (Fig. 6). In particular, this study shows that the method
remains stable for important distortions when one divides the CFL by 2.
In the second step, we compared Q
3
and Q
5
when = 1, = 0.85 and = 0.7 for
equivalent CPU times, as shown in Table 1. The solution was computed for t ]0, 50[. The
discretization in time was made by using a leapfrog scheme with t corresponding to a CFL
divided by 2. We divided the CFL by 2 in order to reduce the eect of the second-order
character of the leapfrog method. For each experiment, we computed the l
2
-error on the
seismogram at the center of the domain (where the source is located), given by
_
N
c

i=1
(u
c
i
u
r
i
)
2
_
N
r

i=1
(u
r
i
)
2
_
1/2
(6.1)
where u
r
is the reference solution computed with a 60 60 elements mesh and a time-step
equal to 10
3
. u
c
is the computed solution and N
r
and N
c
are the numbers of points for
the two corresponding seismograms (the time-step of a computed solution is a multiple of
10
3
). In Fig. 7, we draw the l
2
-errors for Q
3
and Q
5
versus the CPU time. One can see
that Q
5
is much more accurate than Q
3
and that the distortion has very few inuence on
the error. However, large distortions can generate some ripples for coarse meshes in Q
5
as
shown in Fig. 8.
The comparison of our method with classical spectral elements (the leapfrog method is
strictly equivalent to centered second-order nite dierence) shows that the mixed approach
is 1.1 faster in Q
3
and 1.9 faster in Q
5
than a classical spectral element method. These
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
186 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
Fig. 7. l
2
-errors versus the CPU times for dierent values of . The lower curves are those of Q
5
.
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
Mixed Finite Elements with Mass-Lumping for the Transient Wave Equation 187
Fig. 8. Seismograms at the center of the domain on the time interval ]25, 50[ for Q
5
when = 1 (above left),
= 0.85 (above right) and = 0.70 (below) compared with the reference solution. One can notice some
ripples for = 0.70.
ratios are about 25% better than expected. This additional gain is due to the computation
of array addresses, since the arrays are larger for classical elements.
7. Conclusion
We gave a factorization of the stiness-matrix of a spectral element method which leads
to an important reduction of storage and a signicant reduction of time. Numerical 2D
experiments showed that the use of higher order elements can provide a substantial reduction
March 24, 2000 11:53 WSPC/130-JCA 0006
188 G. Cohen & S. Fauqueux
of time for a reasonable deformations of the elements. This method is being extended to the
elastics system and the preliminary studies gave very promishing results.
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