Abstract
The closest point method for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) posed on surfaces was recently introduced by Ruuth and Merriman [J. Comput. Phys., 227 (2008), pp. 1943- 1961] and successfully applied to a variety of surface PDEs. In this paper we study the theoretical foundations of this method. The main idea is that surface differentials of a surface function can be replaced with Cartesian differentials of its closest point extension, i.e., its composition with a closest point function. We introduce a general class of these closest point functions (a subset of differentiable retractions), show that these are exactly the functions necessary to satisfy the above idea, and give a geometric characterization of this class. Finally, we construct some closest point functions and demonstrate their effectiveness numerically on surface PDEs. © 2012 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3303-3328 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUK-C1-013-04
Acknowledgements: Received by the editors February 10, 2012; accepted for publication (in revised form) September 24, 2012; published electronically December 4, 2012. This work was supported by award KUK-C1-013-04 made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.