An introduction to finite element methods for inverse coefficient problems in elliptic PDEs

  • Several novel imaging and non-destructive testing technologies are based on reconstructing the spatially dependent coefficient in an elliptic partial differential equation from measurements of its solution(s). In practical applications, the unknown coefficient is often assumed to be piecewise constant on a given pixel partition (corresponding to the desired resolution), and only finitely many measurement can be made. This leads to the problem of inverting a finite-dimensional non-linear forward operator F: D(F)⊆Rn→Rm , where evaluating ℱ requires one or several PDE solutions. Numerical inversion methods require the implementation of this forward operator and its Jacobian. We show how to efficiently implement both using a standard FEM package and prove convergence of the FEM approximations against their true-solution counterparts. We present simple example codes for Comsol with the Matlab Livelink package, and numerically demonstrate the challenges that arise from non-uniqueness, non-linearity and instability issues. We also discuss monotonicity and convexity properties of the forward operator that arise for symmetric measurement settings. This text assumes the reader to have a basic knowledge on Finite Element Methods, including the variational formulation of elliptic PDEs, the Lax-Milgram-theorem, and the Céa-Lemma. Section 3 also assumes that the reader is familiar with the concept of Fréchet differentiability.

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Metadaten
Author:Bastian von HarrachORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-692298
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1365/s13291-021-00236-2
ISSN:1869-7135
Parent Title (English):Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung
Publisher:Springer
Place of publication:Berlin ; Heidelberg
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2021/05/06
Date of first Publication:2021/05/06
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2022/10/20
Tag:Finite element methods; Finitely many measurements; Inverse problems; Piecewise-constant coefficient
Volume:123
Issue:3
Page Number:28
First Page:183
Last Page:210
Note:
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
HeBIS-PPN:501826831
Institutes:Informatik und Mathematik / Mathematik
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 51 Mathematik / 510 Mathematik
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0