Finite Element Approximation of the Cahn--Hilliard Equation with Degenerate Mobility

  • Authors:

  • John W. Barrett;James F. Blowey;Harald Garcke

  • Affiliations:

  • -;-;-

  • Venue:
  • SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

We consider a fully practical finite element approximation of the Cahn--Hilliard equation with degenerate mobility $$ \textstyle \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}= \del .(\,b(u)\, \del (-\gamma\lap u+\Psi'(u))) , $$ where $b(\cdot)\geq 0$ is a diffusional mobility and $\Psi(\cdot)$ is a homogeneous free energy. In addition to showing well posedness and stability bounds for our approximation, we prove convergence in one space dimension. Furthermore, an iterative scheme for solving the resulting nonlinear discrete system is analyzed. We also discuss how our approximation has to be modified in order to be applicable to a logarithmic homogeneous free energy. Finally, some numerical experiments are presented.